RAAF F-111

Last Updated: Sat Jul 4 05:56:21 UTC 2009

Why Australia Should Retain Its F-111 Fleet

ADA Defender - Are the F-111s Really Stuffed? [Click for more ...]

By far the best recent example of bureaucratic incompetence and dishonesty in Australia's DoD is the completely arbitrary decision to prematurely retire Australia's F-111 fleet, which at full strength accounted for over 50 percent of Australia's striking capability (Image © 2009 C. Kopp).

The F-111 is currently the backbone of the RAAF providing at full strength more than 50% of the strike capability in the existing fighter fleet. In late 2003, the Defence bureaucracy in Canberra successfully convinced the Defence Minister that the F-111 would be too expensive to operate past 2010, and gained Federal Government approval to retire the aircraft in the 2010 timescale, after earlier unsuccessful attempts to effect a retirement in 2006.

The decision to retire the F-111 has been neither popular, nor widely accepted as necessary in the expert community. Built in the late 1960s, the F-111 is a contemporary of the US B-52H and B-1B bombers, both of which the US Air Force intends to operate well past 2030. None of the arguments presented by Defence in parliament to justify the early retirement of the F-111 were successfully defended in the public debate, as none were truthful.

The plan for early retirement of the F-111 has resulted in a vigorous public debate in the press and the parliamentary commitee system. This website will post a selection of relevant articles, submissions and papers.

The Debate on Premature F-111 Retirement in 2010
F-111 Image Gallery
F-111 and Related Topics

The Debate on Premature F-111 Retirement in 2010

Carlo Kopp and Peter Goon	Submission to the Minister for Defence	Mar 2008	Strategic Needs and Force Structure Analysis: The Thinking Behind the F-22A and Evolved F-111 Force Mix Option
Don Middleton	ADA Defender	Q1 2007	Are the F-111s Really Stuffed? [PDF]
Peter Goon	ADA Defender	Q2 2005	Affordability and the new air combat capability [PDF]
Peter Goon	Air Power Australia	Jan 2005	A FAREWELL TO ARMS - REVISITED [PDF]
Carlo Kopp	Australian Aviation	Dec 2004	Cruise Missile Options for Australia (AIR 5418) [PDF]
Carlo Kopp	Australian Aviation	Mar 2004	How Defence Miscalculated F-111 Costs [PDF]
Carlo Kopp	Australian Aviation	Jan 2004	Taking the 'Force' out of Air Force? [PDF]
Carlo Kopp	ADA Defender	Q2 2004	Stretching the F-111 Past 2010 [PDF]
Carlo Kopp	Defence News	Dec 2003	Towards a 'boutique Air Force' - downsizing the RAAF [PDF]
Carlo Kopp	The Australian	Nov 2003	Warbird deserves reprieve [PDF]
Carlo Kopp	Defence News	Sep 2003	Cost of killing off the F-111 [PDF]
Carlo Kopp	Defence Today	Aug 2003	How Expensive is the F-111? [PDF]
Carlo Kopp	Defence Today	May 2003	Three Decades of the F-111 [PDF]
Carlo Kopp	Defence Today	Nov 2002	F-111 Update Parts 1, 2
Carlo Kopp	Australian Aviation	Sep 2002	Managing Ageing Aircraft [PDF]
Carlo Kopp	HeadsUp Newsletter	Issue 273	F-111 High Cost Fallacies
Carlo Kopp	HeadsUp Newsletter	Issue 274	Storm Clouds Over the Force Horizon
Carlo Kopp	HeadsUp Newsletter	Issue 275	Why Army Needs Pig Support
Carlo Kopp	HeadsUp Newsletter	Issue 276	F-111: Our Soundest Aircraft
Carlo Kopp	HeadsUp Newsletter	Issue 277	Keeping the RAAF on its Toes
Carlo Kopp	HeadsUp Newsletter	Issue 286	How F-111 Cuts Will Cripple Australian Power
Carlo Kopp	HeadsUp Newsletter	Issue 287	F-111 Skills Vital For Nation
Carlo Kopp	HeadsUp Newsletter	Issue 288	RAAF Loses its Capability Edge
Carlo Kopp	HeadsUp Newsletter	Issue 290	Defence's Cruise Missile Wet Dream
Carlo Kopp	HeadsUp Newsletter	Issue 291	Over the Hill - and far away?
Carlo Kopp	HeadsUp Newsletter	Issue 292	Persistence wins friends, influence
Carlo Kopp	HeadsUp Newsletter	Issue 293	Global Hawk: great but no panacea
Carlo Kopp	HeadsUp Newsletter	Issue 294	F-111: Throw weight vs precision
Carlo Kopp	HeadsUp Newsletter	Issue 296	When bureaucracy is blinkered
Carlo Kopp	HeadsUp Newsletter	Issue 297	F-111, JSF and aircrew recruitment
Carlo Kopp	HeadsUp Newsletter	Issue 299	NCW, buzzwords and reality
Carlo Kopp	HeadsUp Newsletter	Issue 300	DCP: Hear no evil, see no evil
Carlo Kopp	HeadsUp Newsletter	Issue 301	Air 5402 - another missed chance
Carlo Kopp	HeadsUp Newsletter	Issue 303	Faster than a speeding bullet . . .
Carlo Kopp	HeadsUp Newsletter	Issue 304	Stealth: Now you see it . . ?
Carlo Kopp	HeadsUp Newsletter	Issue 305	How they got it wrong
Carlo Kopp	HeadsUp Newsletter	Issue 306	A case of convoluted reasoning
Carlo Kopp	HeadsUp Newsletter	Issue 307	How RAAF misses the ideas bus
Carlo Kopp	HeadsUp Newsletter	Issue 308	Getting the air power facts straight
Carlo Kopp	HeadsUp Newsletter	Issue 309	Mountains out of molehills
Carlo Kopp	HeadsUp Newsletter	Issue 310	Beware of the pollie in the sun
Carlo Kopp	HeadsUp Newsletter	Issue 311	Now we're getting technical
Carlo Kopp	HeadsUp Newsletter	Issue 312	F-111 costs are over-estimated
Carlo Kopp	HeadsUp Newsletter	Issue 313	Justifying the unjustifiable
Carlo Kopp	HeadsUp Newsletter	Issue 314	Ignore history - repeat mistakes
Carlo Kopp	HeadsUp Newsletter	Issue 316	Defence - deep reforms are needed
Carlo Kopp	HeadsUp Newsletter	Issue 318	HEADSUP SPECIAL - Is the JSF really good enough? analysing the ASPI paper
Carlo Kopp	HeadsUp Newsletter	Issue 321	Defence: a conservative dilemma
Carlo Kopp	HeadsUp Newsletter	Issue 322	HEADSUP SPECIAL - F/A-22As, JSFs and 21st Century air combat

F-111 Image Gallery

F-111 and Related Topics

Carlo Kopp	Australian Aviation	Jul-Oct 2001	Pigs Forever? [F-111 Supercruise]
Carlo Kopp	Australian Aviation	Oct 2001	Amberley Weapon System Business Unit
Carlo Kopp	Defence Today	May 2003	RAAF F-111G Wild Weasel Concept
Carlo Kopp	Australian Aviation	Jul 1999	EF-111A Ravens for the RAAF?
Carlo Kopp	Australian Defence Intelligencer	Jul 1999	Response to Fred Haddock's Critique of "Ravens for the RAAF ?"
Carlo Kopp	Australian Aviation	Oct 1998 - Jan 1999	F-111 Upgrade Options I-IV
Carlo Kopp	Air Power International	4.2 1998	Driving the Pig [Simulator]
Carlo Kopp	Australian Aviation	Dec 1996	AGM-142E Raptor - The RAAF's New Standoff Weapon
Carlo Kopp	Australian Aviation	Jul 1996	Upgrading the RAAF's F-111Gs
Carlo Kopp	Australian Aviation	Jul 1996	Sea Control - Submarines or Air Power?
Carlo Kopp	Australian Aviation	Dec 1995	New Defensive Avionics for the F-111
Carlo Kopp	Australian Aviation	Nov 1995	Tomahawks, Submarines and the F-111
Carlo Kopp	Australian Aviation	Jun 1995	The RAAF F-111G 'G-Model Pig'
Carlo Kopp	Australian Aviation	Jun-Sep 1995	New Tusks for the Pig [AUP]
Carlo Kopp	Australian Aviation	June 1984	Pave Tack and GBU-15
Carlo Kopp	Australian Aviation	June 1984	Strike - RAAF Style
Carlo Kopp	Australian Aviation	June 1984	General Dynamics F-111 Profile
Carlo Kopp	F-111.net	1996	Experimental F-111 Camouflage Gallery

The Parliamentary Debate [Click for more ...]

Related Links [Click for more ...]

F-111C A8-129 in legacy and current camouflage.

Parametric comparison - F-111 vs alternatives - Click for more ...

F-111 Cost Effectiveness - Click for more ...

The F-111F was the most capable US Air Force variant, this example armed with four GBU-10 laser guided bombs and with its AVQ-26 Pave Tack electro-optical targeting pod deployed. The F-111 played a pivotal role in the destruction of Saddam's forces in 1991, as well as distinguishing itself during the Linebacker II campaign and El Dorado Canyon strikes. Around 70 F-111Fs, a large fraction with new Pacer Strike avionics, are mothballed now at AMARC (U.S. Air Force photo).

The F-111F was equipped to carry the GBU-15 electro-optically guided glide bomb, and later the powered AGM-130 stand-off weapon - RAAF aircraft were armed instead with the Israeli Rafael AGM-142 SOW (Jim Rotramel via F-111.net).

US Strategic Air Command FB-111A aircraft carried nuclear armed AGM-69 SRAM defence suppression missiles in the internal weapon bay, which all F-111s were built with. Australia's F-111 has played an important role as a test platform for clearing a wide range of new internally carried munitions being developed for the F-22A and later JSF (U.S. Air Force photo).

The U.S. Air Force prematurely mothballed its Electronic Attack force of 40 Grumman/GD EF-111A Ravens in 1999, after an acrimonious public debate. The lost capability is now being reconstituted using even older B-52H airframes, equipped with external jamming pods, unlike the compact internal variant of the ALQ-99 carried by the Ravens. The traditional defence penetration related roles performed by electronic attack aircraft are increasingly broadening to encompass communications and network jamming (U.S.Air Force photo)

The F-111 is an unusually versatile high performance aircraft, and has been used as a strike fighter, support jammer and also a testbed vehicle for carrying a long range SAR/GMTI radar in high threat environments. With over 200 mothballed airframes available in AMARC, the aircraft has the potential with upgrades to remain in service well past 2020, and fulfill a much wider range of roles than currently used for.

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