View Full Version : F-111 downs the PONG SU
Critical Reynolds No
23rd Mar 2006, 04:11
No hard evidence, but does anyone know what type of weapon it used? Harpoon?
I'll leave it up to serious and non-serious answers!
Gnadenburg
23rd Mar 2006, 04:29
News mentions a laser guided bomb.
Big political statement I would think. Bombing a North Korean flagged vessel. Well received in neo-con corridors of power.
Good job! Anyone recall the Taiwanese lack of success at similar recently? Fighters & gunships couldn't sink a vessel endangering shipping routes.
ThoughtCrime
23rd Mar 2006, 05:38
About time we got serious.
Whats the exact story?
...TC
Buster Hyman
23rd Mar 2006, 05:43
Fighter jets down Pong Su
March 23, 2006 - 1:44PM
The North Korean heroin smuggling ship Pong Su has been sunk off the NSW coast by a bomb dropped from an RAAF F-111 jet fighter.
The 3,500-tonne freighter, which was used to import 150kg of heroin into Australia, was sent to the bottom of the ocean 140km off the the NSW south coast in a military exercise this morning.
Australian Federal Police confirmed the ship was sunk after the RAAF completed safety checks and cleared the area.
The freighter was towed out of Sydney Harbour on Tuesday, where it had been berthed since it was seized three years ago after a four-day chase by Australian soldiers, federal police and customs officers.
The Pong Su was intercepted off the NSW Central Coast in April 2003 after dropping off a cargo of drugs on the coast of Victoria.
Earlier this month, four Pong Su officers accused of aiding and abetting the importation of heroin were acquitted and released.
However four other men involved in the operation earlier pleaded guilty and two have been jailed.
The Pong Su has been costing Australian taxpayers about $2,500 a day to maintain, while the taxpayer-funded defence of the four ship's officers has been estimated at up to $3 million.
AFP commander Frank Prendergast said the sinking of the ship showed the police's resolve to fight drugs.
"The AFP is committed to working with its partner agencies to disrupt organised importation or drugs and protect the community from the devastating effects of the illegal drug trade," he said in a statement.
AAP
Why didn't they do that when they were chasing it? Could've saved a lot of time...
Do you think they were practising the other week and scared the life out of Wheeler? (http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=216131)
ThoughtCrime
23rd Mar 2006, 05:51
Oh damn, I thought it was one coming in, not one we caught!
Why didn't they do that when they were chasing it? Could've saved a lot of time...
Time AND money it seems!
TC
Buster Hyman
23rd Mar 2006, 08:00
Some extended footage on ABC tonight. Two strikes & a dirty great hole just aft of her bow. Strange how it was listing to Port yet both strikes were on the starboard...
You could just make out the ordinance on the thermal imagery...nice shot!:ok:
BadgerPLE
23rd Mar 2006, 08:52
G'day all,
Here's the ABC news story:
http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/200603/r77978_222682.asx
Only one official photo:
http://www.defence.gov.au/media/download/2006/Mar/20060323c.cfm
Enjoy! :ok:
Taildragger67
23rd Mar 2006, 09:51
SMH story link:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/drug-freighter-meets-spectacular-end/2006/03/23/1143083893144.html
makes for good telly.
Actually there is some telly on this link (the ABC story):
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200603/s1599248.htm
Final shot of the ship listing shows a big bit of ventilation in the front. That must've been one fun sortie for the Pig jockeys!
Will the aircraft utilised in the sinking be able to put a little ships hull beside a Nth Korean flag underneath the cockpit window to denote their participation? :} :E
tinpis
23rd Mar 2006, 17:22
I reckon it was about 3 years and $4.8 million too late. :hmm:
Sunfish
23rd Mar 2006, 20:07
Buster the strikes were to Port and probably blew dirty great 'oles in the Starboard side - hence Starboard list.
tinpis
23rd Mar 2006, 20:58
Sunfish
An old Ansett captain at his retirement booze-up was asked what was in the old shoe box that for years he always carried with him on board
After much pestering he finally relented and went and got the old box.
He opened it to reveal two old bits of yellowing paper on which was written
PORT-LEFT
STARBOARD-RIGHT.
Buster Hyman
23rd Mar 2006, 22:05
Thanks tinpis, didn't think I had that wrong after all these years!:rolleyes:
victor two
23rd Mar 2006, 23:17
Fantastic. After only 30 short years of operating the type we have proved beyond doubt that we can find and actually hit a large stationary object parked out on the open ocean............ amazing. Just amazing.
Runaway Gun
24th Mar 2006, 18:23
And what would the Kiwis do? Take photos of it from their Orions, and then do some sort of Hippy Chant and drop flowers? Well done Pig Drivers !! :ok:
Nah, we Kiwis would just HALO onto the ship and tear big chunks out of it with our teeth...
Only Aussies would use a sledgehammer to crack a nut. Why not just place a small charge in the bottom of the hull, it would have the same effect... :rolleyes:
PPRuNe Radar
24th Mar 2006, 23:33
Don't ships have scuttle cocks anymore ?? :)
Still, at least you boys sunk it. Unlike our Pommie forces trying to sink the Torrey Canyon in the 1960's ;) :ok:
Lodown
25th Mar 2006, 03:46
Don't know much about military stuff. The bombs almost hit at the same time in two locations. Were the bombs dropped from one aircraft while another one provided assistance with target designation?
Tinpis, it reminds me of that lovely saying to remember about aircraft lights and traffic at night. Green on green, red on red, perfect safety, go ahead. Green and red both in front, go ahead and ram the "other plane".
Gnadenburg
25th Mar 2006, 04:13
Nah, we Kiwis would just HALO onto the ship and tear big chunks out of it with our teeth... :rolleyes:
Whose aircraft you going to borrow MOR? :yuk:
Macchi
25th Mar 2006, 08:15
I think MOR probably means "HALO" the computer game. That's about as war-like as the NZDF would get anyway...:rolleyes:
The best quote I ever heard regards the Kiwi Defence Force (Post "Hullun" of course) was that "...in terms of Defence capability, New Zealand is now the Bangladesh of the South West Pacific!!!":ok:
Gnadenburg
25th Mar 2006, 09:01
I think MOR probably means "HALO" the computer game. That's about as war-like as the NZDF would get anyway...:rolleyes:
The best quote I ever heard regards the Kiwi Defence Force (Post "Hullun" of course) was that "...in terms of Defence capability, New Zealand is now the Bangladesh of the South West Pacific!!!":ok:
Last time I was in Chittagong & Dhaka, I noted some pretty nasty looking Bengali Mig 29's & light Chinese made fighter bombers.
But just to the north of Bangladesh, is the tiny state of Bhutan. Friendly, simple hill folk. Perhaps, New Zealand, with it's simple hill folk, is the Bhutan of the South Pacific.
7gcbc
25th Mar 2006, 09:43
I think it's a pretty good use for the PONG SU, she sat (round the corner from us seeping oil) in Snail bay for 8-12 months and then re-appeared at Clifton Gardens - where she resideded for another 4 odd, seeping more ballast and just looking like she was ready to decompose.
Would it not have been worth it doing a few live 20mm passes from f18's or similar before the coupe de grace, a 2klber GBU from a pig seems a little too easy ?
Whizzwheel
25th Mar 2006, 16:37
Reminds me of a similar event a few years ago, where F-111 was planned to sink ex-HMAS Bowat with same weapon, but had the common decency to offer a few young Hornet guys a chance to practice first with 2 x tiny 500 pound bombs (are they mk 37s?) each first...needless to say, said Hornet pilots dropped their mk 37s, and reduced HMAS Bowat to a rapidly descending extra from 'Finding Nemo' in a matter of 6 seconds. F-111 sortie cancellled on the ground, before nation's elite media. Gut wrenching.:{
kmagyoyo
25th Mar 2006, 20:59
Ironic that the lead Pilot for the mission is a Kiwi....nice work A.F. :ok:
Obiwan
25th Mar 2006, 23:50
Only Aussies would use a sledgehammer to crack a nut. Why not just place a small charge in the bottom of the hull, it would have the same effect... :rolleyes:
As someone said earlier - nice bit of dramatic PR. Sinking a vessel owned by a foreign country running drugs in our waters. Shame it wasn't done during the chase...
Video footage is also on the ADF website (http://www.defence.gov.au/media/download/2006/Mar/20060323c.cfm)
Sinking a vessel owned by a foreign country running drugs in our waters. Shame it wasn't done during the chase...[/URL]
Very Tom Clancy like really isn't it. A 'Clear and Present danger'....
Should be more of it! :E
Gnadenburg
26th Mar 2006, 05:03
Reminds me of a similar event a few years ago, where F-111 was planned to sink ex-HMAS Bowat with same weapon, but had the common decency to offer a few young Hornet guys a chance to practice first with 2 x tiny 500 pound bombs (are they mk 37s?) each first...needless to say, said Hornet pilots dropped their mk 37s, and reduced HMAS Bowat to a rapidly descending extra from 'Finding Nemo' in a matter of 6 seconds. F-111 sortie cancellled on the ground, before nation's elite media. Gut wrenching.:{
500lbs the weapon of choice against Japanese merchant and naval shipping by 1SQN a long time ago. And isn't the Harpoon a similar sized warhead?
2000lb for killing battleships?
ftrplt
26th Mar 2006, 08:33
very simple ROT:
500lb'ers for frag
2000lb'ers for blast - blast is what you would need in this case. They would have been slightly delay fused (milli-seconds) to allow detonation on the inside of the hull, possibly the reason it sank to the left (i.e underwater holes on the port side).
From the IR footage, it looks like different trajectories for the two bombs, which suggest 1 bomb each from 2 x F111 dropping near simultaneously from a wide formation. (mind you, have only had one quick look at it so could be wrong).
Disclaimer: having said all above, 500lb'ers work great on tanks due to better manoeuvreability, smaller target and can carry more.
Also as an aside, the F18 will finally be getting 1000lb'ers which is basically what the aeroplane was designed around - only taken 20 years!!