RAAF Super Hornet story in The Australian

RAAF pilot on a high with his super new Hornet

Nothing new here apart from some glossing of the Super Hornets. While I like them I think that 24 of them will never ever replace the F111 in substance (half the range of the PIG too!). They are a gap filler like the post below says for the F/A18s, not for F111s. What are we going to do here? Put half the Air Force under maintenance, scrap the F111s and then wait for 10 years for the F35s to be delivered?

Why don't we build our bomb shelters now? At least we will be ready.......

Site of the Day gives a Different Perspective from our Biased Media

Brookes News.

F15 for Western Australia

In a follow up to my last post about no Air Power being based in Western Australia, I have suggested the Government buy around 70 F15s to station 5 Squadrons in Western Australia for Blanket coverage of the Western Australian coast for our Air Defence. The Government believes stationing several squadrons of F/A18s in Darwin is sufficient. Soon the F/A18s are going to have their centre barrels replaced and will have less than their full complement of 71 to defend Australia. The planned retirement of the F111s should be postponed while Dr Carlo Kopp states "The claim that the proposal to buy 24 Super Hornets is to compensate for the capability gap caused by the retirement of the F-111s misrepresents the actual aim of the buy, which is to cover for the unavailability of existing F/A-18A/B model Hornets being subjected to structural repairs to remain flyable."
The Government is making several excuses as to why they are retiring the F111, yet a bit of research will prove that these are entirely excuses aimed at political shortcomings. The F111 provides Australia will unprecedented capability
Dr Kopp goes on to say "Premature retirement of the F-111 will leave the RAAF with an unprecedented capability gap in the air strike roles, of the order of 50% against the strike capability planned for in the 2000 White Paper. Assertions that the F-111 aircraft are no longer supportable either economically or technically are simply not true."
And then he makes the point that it is far more economical to keep the existing F111s and maintain them along with a buy of the F22s instead of the ill-fated JSF F35s.

Read it all.

Information on the F15 is available here, here, and here. It is certainly not the F22 (it will take quite some time to acquire the F22 anyway) but is better than nothing. If the Government wanted to be scapegoats then get us some F4 Phantoms which are currently still in service. They are a mighty fine aircraft. It is better having some form of Air Power than none at all. But saying that is not helpful when in 1941 and 1942 Wirraways went up against Zeros. None of our Air Force pilots wants to be told to fly suicide missions and we shouldn't expect them to. Our Government should learn from the lack of Air Force equipment available in World War II to us.






The Hornet is two engined fighter. Australia bought 75 of them. Because of the size of Australia's Air Force we should have bought F15s since the Hornets aren't really able to go very far. They have a range (ferry) of 1800nm whereas the F15 has a ferry range of 3000nm. A few other factors make the F15 the best aircraft when it is put up against the F/A18.

Perth and Western Australia suffers from lack of Air Force Firepower

RAAF Base Pearce in Western Australia is basically the only Air Force with RAAF units within range of Perth. Of these, Hawk Lead in Fighters can be armed with missiles and bombs but it is a trainer and not designated a fighter or bomber aircraft. Perth is thousands of kilometres away from the nearest squadrons that can provide Air Defence to WA. In my newest correspondence to the Defence Department I will be inquiring whether or not the RAAF should be brought up to suitable strength, otherwise a few quick sorties could totally evade our Air Force in Western Australia.
China is now attaining Aircraft Carriers and if Taiwan becomes a flash point, there is no telling what can happen since we are closer than we think.

F111 Video

This is a video I made of an Airshow in Australia in 2005.
Includes the awesome F111, as well as the FA18s, and BAe Hawk Lead in Fighter Trainer.

It is on Youtube.

Support our Leaders in the War on Terror

Clearly many people who have an interest in Defence matters do support our Prime Minister, President Bush and Israel. As well Winston Churchill and Ronald Reagan are very popular as well. Two books I will mention today worth reading for Australians are in the context of this and especially when Churchill was going it alone similar to what President Bush has been doing. Though he has had broad support for his efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, countries such as Spain (which didn't even show up in World War II due to its internal conflict with Fascism and Communism) have pulled out and been the target of terrorist acts.
Kokoda by Peter Fitzsimmons is an essential read though it is excellent reading all the way through. Get it if you want to know the bravery of Australians in battle, and why we deserve a suitable Air Force. This leads me on to the next book by David Day from the same time period, The Politics of War. Apart from Winston Churchill's 6 volume series on World War II, this book is probably essential for the Australian perspective as Churchill wrote from the big picture and Britain's perspective.


The web site Aussies4ANZUS should be visited by all Australians concerned with our Security, our alliance with the US and basically supporters of Australia.

Another great web site I like (Little Green Footballs deserves a mention) is Michelle Malkin, a hot Japanese American labelled a 'right winger' by those on the left who howl at her so called 'harsh' comments. Ann Coulter is far more out there but worth the humour. Ann is brilliant with her political articles on her site and the books she has written, including the great ones on Slick Willy being exposed for his Lewinsky moments!

Basically I don't have much time for the 'MainStreamMedia' known as the MSM, and that is why web sites like Camera and Honestreporting along with Frontpagemag are on my regular visit list.

F111 Web Sites of the day

F111.Net

Today's site of interest is F111.Net. For all information on the F111 visit that site, and of course visit Dr Carlo Kopp's web site Air Power Australia for an encyclopedia of information on Air Warfare but most importantly keeping the F111s Airborne.