Australia, with little commitment to industry policy, has given up major state support for aerospace manufacturing. It is lucky for local industry then, that the rest of the world has not. The F-35 program's early acceptance that export customers would demand production work resulted in the Australians automatically being offered participation their government would probably not have fought for. This is resulting in one Australia manufacturer upgrading its skills, a small but advanced company building up its size and perhaps having an opportunity to apply radical cost-saving technology, and most surprisingly, a newcomer entering the industry. Prom the point of view of Australian economic efficiency, the program is all the more satisfactory because F-35 contracts, though offered to customer countries, are subject to competition; a company cannot simply hold out its hand and declare that it is entitled.
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