Australia could buy up to 100 of the advanced F-35 joint strike fighters from the United States under a $15 billion project to replace the RAAF's ageing fighters and bombers.

Defence Minister Robert Hill said all negotiations had so far centred on buying the conventional takeoff version of the JSF.

But buying at least some of the short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) version could not be ruled out ahead of a final purchase decision in 2008, he said.

Such aircraft could be operated from the navy's planned new amphibious landing ships, resurrecting a naval aviation capability which ended when the aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne was decommissioned in June 1982.

"Our commitment is to purchase up to 100 conventional aircraft, provided that by 2008 the aircraft achieves every milestone that has been set for it," Senator Hill told a defence seminar in Canberra.

"There are alternative versions of this aircraft that have particular capabilities. It would be wrong also for me to rule out the fact that a government in 2008 might decide on a mixed fleet of these aircraft."

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