Australia Equips Strike-Craft With Missiles

Defence Minister Robert Hill announced today that Australia's F/A-18 Hornet fighter and AP-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft will be equipped with long range missiles capable of destroying land and sea targets.

F/A-18 Hornet strike aircraft with missile under-wing.

Joint Air-to-Surface Stand-off Missile (JASSM).

Senator Hill said Defence would choose from the following three long-range air-to-surface weapons:

* Joint Air-to-Surface Stand-off Missile (JASSM) manufactured by American company Lockheed Martin which is a stealthy long range missile that can reach targets from about 400 kilometres away;

* A variant of the precision-attack cruise missile KEPD 350 manufactured by the European company Taurus Systems GmbH that has a range of about 350 kilometres; and

* The Stand-off Land Attack Missile - Expanded Response (SLAM-ER) manufactured by American-based Boeing that is modelled on the Harpoon anti-shipping missile, currently used by the Australian Defence Force and has a range of more than 250 kilometres.

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