Australia to acquire long-range anti ship missiles

[zenrat]

Our Prime Minister - Scotty from Marketing - yesterday (30th June 2020) announced at a press conference that Australia would be purchasing anti-ship cruise missiles from the US navy.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jun/30/australia-to-acquire-long-range-missiles-as-pm-warns-of-dangerous-post-covid-19-world
The article goes on to say "The system, known as the AGM-158C Long Range Anti-Ship Missile, has a range of more than 370km and will initially be used on F/A-18F Super Hornet aircraft, but may also be integrated onto other defence aircraft."

On February 12th 2020 the Australian Defence Magazine website aid;

The US State Department has approved an FMS to Australia of up to 200 AGM-158C, Long Range Anti-Ship Missiles (LRASMs) and related equipment for an estimated cost of US$990 million (A$1.47 billion).The Commonwealth has requested to buy up to 200 AGM-158Cs and up to 11 ATM-158C LRASM Telemetry Variants (Inert). Also included are DATM-158C LRASM, Captive Air Training Missiles (CATM-158C LRASM), containers, support and test equipment, publications and technical documentation, personnel training and training equipment, US government and contractor representatives technical assistance, engineering and logistics support services, and other related elements of logistics support.RAAF intends to use the missiles on its F-18 Super Hornet aircraft. The prime contractor is Lockheed Martin.
LRASMs are armed with a penetrator and blast fragmentation warhead and employs precision routing and guidance, a multi-modal sensor suite, weapon data link, and enhanced digital anti-jam Global Positioning System to detect and destroy specific targets within a group of numerous ships at sea.
Based on the AGM-158B JASSM-ER, the AGM-158C is also compatible with the Mk 41 Vertical Launch System fitted on RAN's Air Warfare Destroyers.

https://www.australiandefence.com.au/news/us-approves-long-range-anti-ship-missiles-for-raaf

Presumably it was more politically expedient for it to be announced now rather than back then.
No mention of these missiles being carried by F-35s.  Does this mean the RAAF will be retaining their F/A18s when the F-35s finally come into full service in 2023?  Despite the F-35s being meant to replace them.

The official Air Force website describes the F-35 as being "the most suitable aircraft to replace the ageing F/A-18A/B Hornets."...
https://www.airforce.gov.au/technology/aircraft/strike/f-35a-lightning-ii
...while also stating that F/A-18F Super Hornets ensure that Australia's air combat capability edge is maintained until the full introduction of the F-35A Lightning II.
https://www.airforce.gov.au/technology/aircraft/strike/fa-18f-super-hornet

[Dizzyfugu]

AFAIK, the F-35 can carry the AGM-158, so that a replacement plan makes sense. The old Hornets could be sold to Germany, though...

[jcf]

AGM-158C is cleared for use on the Super Bug, F-35 and P-8 Poseidon.
It's an anti-ship derivative of a missile that Australia already fields.