He said taxpayers stand to lose if the $6.5 billion Super Hornets contract goes ahead — because too much was paid — or if it was cancelled. The Defence Material Organisation has warned that the Government would lose over $400 million if it was axed.

Mr Fitzgibbon said the former government "ignored the advice of Defence" in deciding to retire the F-111 jets ahead of the delivery of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter fleet in about 2015 — and then rushed the Super Hornets acquisition to fill the gap. "(Defence) were told to go out and find one very quickly … there was no comparative analysis with other aircraft," Mr Fitzgibbon said. "It was a rushed ad hoc process and sadly the taxpayer now looks like paying the price." Mr Minchin responded to Mr Fitzgibbon's attack, saying he was "reflecting very badly and very unfairly on all those thousands of men and women in the DMO".

He accused Mr Fitzgibbon of hysterically waving around his red folder but not disclosing its contents other than two projects well known for problems — the Seasprite helicopters and the FFG frigate upgrade. Neil James, executive director of the Australia Defence Association, accused both sides of point-scoring and asked them to consider the morale of the defence force and DMO.

"There is absolutely no doubt that some very hard working and motivated people in the DMO are getting very pissed off about some of this coverage," he said. A senior US defence official defended the sale of the Super Hornets, saying he thought "it was a pretty good deal". But he said the contractors involved stood to make a profit, not the US Government. He said that if Australia succeeded in getting the US to sell it the high-tech F-22 Raptor jet fighter, an alternative to the Super Hornet, it was possible many of its sensitive capabilities would be removed. US legislation bans it from being exported.

Mr Minchin released a statement with comments that the DMO's CEO Stephen Gumley made to a Senate Estimates Committee last week, which said Australia got a standard price for the Super Hornet. "We get the same unit prices as the US Government. I know no way of getting better prices than the US Government," he said. With AAP