Captain Custard appears to have little knowledge about aircraft and their intended otherwise he would quite clear understand the importance of keeping the F-111s in service.
Firstly a mixture of Fighter/Strike aircraft is extremely important for the RAAF. While Captain Custard appears to understand the concept of Air Defence as performed by the Hornets (Bug) he clearly doesn't understand the concept of DETERANCE which is performed by the F-111.
While the F-111 may not be a "true bomber" it is the most capable "strike aircraft" still avaliable in the world today. It carries about 1/2 the payload of a B-1B and its range is astounding.
The Hornets in the RAAF are useless when it comes strike. If we launched them from RAAFB Williamtown/Tindal they would hardly get anywhere near another country without refuelling. The amount of ordances it can carry is laughable/
.
The RAAF don't even have enough pilots to fly all the Hornets. There is almost 2 planes for each Hornet pilot!!
Therefore scrap some Hornets and keep the pig flying.
If Captain Custard had any understanding of aviation in the least he would understand the importance of keeping this Fighter/Strike mix and not making it a Fighter/Fighter mix.
From your message I gather you are either a Knuckle (Hornet Pilot), an Engineer or a Burecrat - the three people who don't know what a real plane is.