Super Hornets For RAAF

[Taildragger67]

Sorry Keg, I know you're big enough to fight your own battles but this goes to a wider issue; I apologise to all for the thread-drift continuation.

Mohikan,

What's your agenda, out of interest?

There are some people who come on these boards and make positive contributions and impart information from which others can learn. They rarely (if ever) seek to denigrate; rather, to educate. They have earnt the respect of many other long-term readers.

Keg is one of these people.

You are not.

[StallBoy]

Australias obtainment of this impressive fighter bomber will send shivers through south east asia. :D
With an outstanding performance in the halfes, half as fast, half as high and half as far as most Russian planes :eek:and the PIG it reminds me of my younger days when the Zero was considered half as good as American and European manufactured fighters.:ugh:


Me thinks the Pig has become a Pig in a Poke.:{

[Going Boeing]

Stallboy, I don't know what your experience is but all the ex-knucks that I've spoken to would rather be sent to war in a Rhino than any Russian aircraft. There is much more to the effectiveness of a fighter platform than it's top speed, range or altitude capability.

[TBM-Legend]

I'm more concerned that Ronnie RAAF has enough $$$ in the budget to keep a full fleet of Bugs and Super Bugs going. The number of serviceable A/B models is not more than a couple of handfuls [out of 71] and the number of "trained killers" is another joke.

Looks like nothing has changed. We have establishments of trained folks in many areas that are not filled. Nothing has changed in 50 years!:ugh:

[Like This - Do That]

Oh dear ....

Tony, you may not have picked up that many in the system, as it were, consider the contributors to that website to be full of Kopp. You're running the risk of kicking the lid off an ant nest.

[edited to add]

Having said that, it is a fairly interesting read, but I'm not a military pilot and thus would barely know if the author is talking out of his hat.

Cheers

[FoxtrotAlpha18]

And that was a very early model Block I model he flew in (c. 2001?).
The Block II is a whole 'nuther world again...:eek: :cool: :ok:

And I like the big, bold anotation at the top of the article that says it shouldn't be taken as an endorsement of the RAAF Super decision, even though he does nothing but raves about the jet throughout the article!

"Any attempt to present this article as an endorsement of the Super Hornet decision will be considered to be intentional and mischievous misrepresentation." :rolleyes: :ugh::D

[YoDawg]

I'm no knuck but that photo of final approach to RW18 at Avalon looks wrong. Why isn't the velocity vector placed over the RW threshold?

It looks to me like a zero-crab flight-path aimed off the edge of the runway.

Like I said I'm no knuck but I've played MS flight sim so am obviously qualified... :rolleyes:

Any knucks care to enlighten?

Oh and Carlo, it's FINAL not finals.... :p

[FlareHighLandLong]

I totally agree that a deterrent that doesn't have to be utilised is a good one. Is it acceptable to absorb that giant chunk of the defence budget for a unused deterrent? (Noting that dump and burns have surely had a significant PR effect).

We have been involved in a number of conflicts where we could have used the Rhino, but the Pig was never going to play (what would be the maintenance overhead of keeping that thing in a warzone?). If the Rhino goes to war anytime soon, regardless of the on paper capability comparison or cost comparison etc, an aircraft that provides a useable capability is better than one that is just nice to have sitting in the glass cabinet with a break if you decide to go to war with your next door neighbour sign on the front.

My two cents. Sorry if I've duplicated previous comments.:}

[frigatebird]

Back To The Future

http://www.fototime.com/1AA9A3C7BADC144/medium.jpg

http://www.fototime.com/E3ACDC131FF4CBB/medium.jpg

[ftrplt]

I'm no knuck but that photo of final approach to RW18 at Avalon looks wrong. Why isn't the velocity vector placed over the RW threshold

The Velocity Vector remains centred in the middle of the HUD - the ghost Vel Vec (tail and wing lines with no circle) shows the actual flight path and is just short of the 1000ft markers on the centreline (i.e left to right crosswind)

[tiger19]

some good footage of superbugs and F-18C's doing their thing. Not RAAF stuff but interesting footage nevertheless. :)

http://www.youtube. com/watch_ popup?v=4gGMI8d3 vLs (http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=4gGMI8d3vLs)



http://www.youtube. com/watch_ popup?v=S0yj70Qb Bzg (http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=S0yj70QbBzg)

[OVERTALK]

Last fall, the Air Force announced that a F-16 Air National Guard unit in South Burlington Vermont was on a list of ten candidates to receive the F-35 when it is built and deployed. Not all of the local reaction has been positive. Reports from Eglin Air Force Base in Florida are that F-35s are significantly louder than the F-16s that operate now out of South Burlington. Some local residents have expressed serious concern. One of them, Juliet Buck, started a blog to provide a forum to discuss the issues. She contacted me, asking several questions about the F-35 itself and about the factors that can influence where military assets are based in the US. Her questions and my answers are below. I believe they provide a useful summary of the issues surrounding the F-35 and the factors that should influence where military units are based in the US, and some factors that should not.

Find this discussion at this link (http://f35insouthburlington.********.com/2010/05/q-with-winslow-wheeler-by-juliet-buck.html)

[frigatebird]

Another great short range 'Deterant' in its time..
(It was either this or the Starfighter..!!?!)
At least the Public paying for them could reach out and touch them sometimes..

http://i784.photobucket.com/albums/yy129/bird__photo/General/MirageAmberleyAirshow.jpg



(from the 'ASIC at work !?' Airport Security thread

Quote:
And exactly what has it all achieved?http://images.ibsrv.net/ibsrv/res/src:www.pprune.org/get/images/smilies/censored.gif
Well, no-one's bombed Birdsville. The key question is whether anyone wanted to in the first place, but that's not Government thinking. No-one's done it, so the system must be working http://images.ibsrv.net/ibsrv/res/src:www.pprune.org/get/images/smilies/badteeth.gif. )

[Going Boeing]

(July 6, 2010) -- Air Force's transition to next-generation air combat capability has advanced further with today's arrival of another six F/A-18F Super Hornets at RAAF Base Amberley, Minister for Defence Senator John Faulkner announced.

Today's touch down followed a four-day journey from Naval Air Station Lemoore in California.

"The Super Hornet acquisition project continues to be a major success. It is delivering a quantum leap in air combat capability to Air Force, on-time and on-budget," Senator Faulkner said.

"This project is a great example of what can be achieved through a strong Defence and Industry partnership."

"This is the culmination of the hard work and dedication of the Royal Australian Air Force, Defence Materiel Organisation, United States Navy, The Boeing Company and their industry partners, Raytheon, General Electric and Northrop Grumman," Senator Faulkner said.

"No. 1 Squadron's transition from operating the venerable F-111 to the highly sophisticated Super Hornet has delivered a new and potent air combat capability that will serve Australia for many years to come".

Twelve of the RAAF Super Hornets have now been delivered by Boeing. The first Super Hornet delivered, A44-201, remains in the United States conducting ongoing advanced software development trials with the United States Navy. It is anticipated that this development activity will be completed later this year and the aircraft will be ferried to Australia before December to bring our in-service complement to twelve aircraft.

The Boeing Company is continuing to assemble Australia's F/A-18F Super Hornets at its St Louis production facility.

No. 1 Squadron is working with the Australian Super Hornet project team, the Air Combat Transition Office and Air Combat Group to achieve Initial Operating Capability at the end of this year.

Source : MoD Australia

[TheShadow]

http://www.iasa-intl.com/folders/belfast/Ruskie_Jet-New-.pdf

Seems impressive

5mb (right-click/save as ........ )

[drop bear ten]

Going Boeing,

They seem to have missed the PR opportunity to fly them non stop from the states. I don't think "FLTLT Peitsch" will ever get over not being on board the first hornet ferry in May 85!!

[Gnadenburg]

TheShadow

That Russian aircraft is a long way off being introduced into our region.

When the SH is operational next year, Australia will again have regional superiority. And a capability to easily join in on US adventurism around the globe.

Should buy another 12-24 with mining proceeds. :hmm:

[TheShadow]

by

Robert Gottliebsen

Published 6:35 AM, 14 Jul 2010 Last update 10:08 AM, 14 Jul 2010


You would never get retiring defence minister John Faulkner to admit it, but he knows that whoever becomes defence minister after the election will have to finally tell the Australian people the truth about the Joint Strike Fighter.

Faulkner was the first defence minister to look closely at what is ahead for Australia and the JSF, and must now realise that there is a lot of bad news to come out, including an enormous impact on the budget.

Defence officials still say that a single JSF will cost about $A75 million (priced in 2008 dollars using a 92 cent exchange rate). The contractor, Lockheed Martin, gives a similar figure. That sounds too good to be true, and it is. The Lockheed slides show that the $75 million does not include key parts of the aircraft.

The US government data shows that they are budgeting this year for a JSF cost of $US248 million per aircraft. The Australian purchase price will be less as more aircraft are produced, but on an optimistic basis it will be at least $US150 million per aircraft or $A172 million – well over double the current official figure. The plan is to buy 100 JSF aircraft, so we are looking at an outlay of at least $17 billion and rising. That money must be found in the budget or borrowed.

But it gets worse. It will cost at least another $4 billion to establish the facilities to support this aircraft. And it might cost a lot more because the JSF one of the noisiest aircraft ever made and the burghers of Newcastle, Ipswich, Darwin and Katherine will not be pleased as the aircraft roars into the sky night after night.

But it gets worse. We were originally sold the aircraft on the basis that it would be low-cost to operate – much lower than the F16. In fact, the latest data indicates it will cost around 1.5 times the F16 to run and the estimated cost is rising.

But it gets worse. We have to make a final decision in 2012 and start paying big dollars from then on. We will actually own 14 aircraft in 2014. Unfortunately it is going to take until 2018 and perhaps later to actually get a JSF aircraft into Australia that meets the original specification. The original estimate was that the first aircraft was due in Australia in 2011. We are seven years behind. During the next eight years our air defence will be fourth rate. We had better not have any regional arguments.

But it gets worse still. Australia will have paid at least $21 billion – and probably much more – for 100 lemons. The updated version of Russia’s Sukhoi – the so called ‘PAK-FA T-50’ which will be supplied to India, China and Indonesia – is already better than what the JSF will be in 2018. That also means that the Americans will be a second rate air power in the region, although they have the F22 which is a great aircraft – though they do not have enough of them and production is about to cease.

We could have bought the F22 for less than JSF price and obtained an excellent aircraft. But had we done that, Lockheed would not have enjoyed a huge JSF profit bonanza.

John Faulkner’s successor will have the same problems as John Faulkner. The JSF is the baby of the Chief of the Defence Force and, more importantly, Australia’s defence depends on the alliance with America – a country which has also made a major mistake.

[FoxtrotAlpha18]

Total and complete and utter crap! :ugh::hmm::mad:

Gottliebsen is being spoon fed by Goon & Kopp and knows nothing of these matters from a first hand basis!

[Keg]

Spoon fed? It looks like a 'cut and paste' from a whole bunch of Kopp's website.

[rapiddescent]

Ahhhhhh, is Carlo out there again.....spinning his warries about the F111 and those amazing Russian Fighters that are un-beatable? Unless you are in an F111 !!!

As we all know, paper stats are worth the paper they are written on. Russian gear is not the way ahead - and neither is the F111.

[Taildragger67]

We could have bought the F22 for less than JSF price and obtained an excellent aircraft

Could we, now? Only if the Seppos had been willing to sell F22s outside the US, which they have not been to date. :ugh:

[Going Boeing]

RAAF will have more firepower with another 3 Super Hornet fighter jets to be delivered by the end of the year
http://www.asdnews.com/data_news/ID31267_600.jpg
The Royal Australian Air Force will have more firepower with another three Super Hornet fighter jets to be delivered by the end of the year.

Minister for Defence Materiel Jason Clare said the three additional aircraft would add to the fleet of 11 Super Hornets already here in Australia.

"Super Hornets are on-schedule and under budget," Mr Clare said.

"They will add to the fire power of our Air Force, taking our air capability to the next generation of fighter plane."

Mr Clare also released footage of the first test firing of the air-to-ground Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW C) outside of the United States.

"This weapon was dropped from one of our new Super Hornets," Mr Clare said.

"The glide weapon has a range of up to 100 kilometres and provides a precision strike capability against hardened targets, such as bunkers."

The Super Hornets conducted two firings of the JSOW C at the Woomera Test Range against two separate hardened concrete targets between 30 August and 15 September 2010.

Both targets were successfully destroyed and all test outcomes were achieved.

"This is a significant milestone. It means that Super Hornets are on track to become operational later this year," Mr Clare said.

"The arrival of the Super Hornets marks an important transition for the RAAF, who will decommission the final F-111 squadron after four decades of service."

The F-111 squadron will be farewelled in the first week of December at RAAF Base Amberley.

Source : MoD Australia