Bradley Perrett covered China, Japan, South Korea and Australia. He is a Mandarin-speaking Australian.
Before joining Aviation Week in 2006 he was a macroeconomics, politics and aerospace journalist with Reuters. Perrett holds a bachelor’s degree in law from Macquarie University, Sydney. He left Aviation Week in 2020.
BEIJING — China is planning development of a cargo aircraft under the designation Y-19 with a payload of 30 metric tons (66,000 lb.), according to new research that confirms and expands on earlier, unsubstantiated reports.
BEIJING — Australia is bringing forward naval construction programs to fill a gap in local shipbuilding, while reaffirming its commitment to building 12 large diesel submarines. As part of a program to preserve the naval industrial base, the government also is reallocating construction of hull blocks for three air-defense destroyers, giving more work to the Williamstown dockyard of BAE Systems in Melbourne.
BEIJING — Australia will buy 12 Boeing EA-18G Growlers instead of converting some of its current 24 F/A-18F Super Hornets to that electronic-attack configuration, the government says in its 2013 defense white paper. The government remains committed to “three operational squadrons” of Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightnings entering service from around 2020, according to the white paper. That may mean that it has decided not to further cut its requirement for that type as it adds Growlers, but the paper is unclear on that point.
