Why
Australia Should Retain Its F-111 Fleet
ADA Defender - Are the F-111s Really
Stuffed? [Click for more ...]
F-111
Image Gallery [Click for more ...]
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The F-111 is currently the backbone of the RAAF providing more than 50%
of the strike capability in the existing fighter fleet. In late
2003 Defence 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 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.
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.
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F-111C
A8-129 in legacy and current camouflage.
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F-111 Early Retirement Articles
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| Don Middleton
- ADA Defender - Summer
2006/2007 - Are the
F-111s Really Stuffed? |
| The Australian - Defence
Report 14 Nov 2003 p23 - Warbird
deserves reprieve |
| HeadsUp Newsletter -
Issue 273 - F-111 High Cost Fallacies |
| HeadsUp Newsletter -
Issue 274 - Storm Clouds Over the Force Horizon |
| HeadsUp Newsletter -
Issue 275 - Why Army Needs Pig Support |
| HeadsUp Newsletter -
Issue 276 - F-111: Our Soundest Aircraft |
| HeadsUp Newsletter -
Issue 277 - Keeping the RAAF on its Toes |
| HeadsUp Newsletter -
Issue 286 - How F-111 Cuts Will Cripple
Australian Power |
| HeadsUp Newsletter -
Issue 287 - F-111 Skills Vital For Nation |
| HeadsUp Newsletter -
Issue 288 - RAAF Loses its Capability Edge |
| HeadsUp Newsletter -
Issue 290 - Defence's Cruise Missile Wet Dream |
| HeadsUp Newsletter -
Issue 291 - Over the Hill - and far away? |
| HeadsUp Newsletter -
Issue 292 - Persistence wins friends, influence |
| HeadsUp Newsletter -
Issue 293 - Global Hawk: great but no panacea |
| HeadsUp Newsletter -
Issue 294 - F-111: Throw weight vs precision |
| HeadsUp Newsletter -
Issue 296 - When bureaucracy is blinkered |
| HeadsUp Newsletter -
Issue 297 - F-111, JSF and aircrew recruitment |
| HeadsUp Newsletter -
Issue 299 - NCW, buzzwords and reality |
| HeadsUp Newsletter -
Issue 300 - DCP: Hear no evil, see no evil |
| HeadsUp Newsletter -
Issue 301 - Air 5402 - another missed chance |
| HeadsUp Newsletter -
Issue 303 - Faster than a speeding bullet . . . |
| HeadsUp Newsletter -
Issue 304 - Stealth: Now you see it . . ? |
| HeadsUp Newsletter -
Issue 305 - How they got it wrong |
| HeadsUp Newsletter -
Issue 306 - A case of convoluted reasoning |
| HeadsUp Newsletter -
Issue 307 - How RAAF misses the ideas bus |
| HeadsUp Newsletter -
Issue 308 - Getting the air power facts straight |
| HeadsUp Newsletter -
Issue 309 - Mountains out of molehills |
| HeadsUp Newsletter -
Issue 310 - Beware of the pollie in the sun |
| HeadsUp Newsletter -
Issue 311 - Now we're getting technical |
| HeadsUp Newsletter -
Issue 312 - F-111 costs are over-estimated |
| HeadsUp Newsletter -
Issue 313 - Justifying the unjustifiable |
| HeadsUp Newsletter -
Issue 314 - Ignore history - repeat mistakes |
| HeadsUp Newsletter -
Issue 316 - Defence - deep reforms are needed |
| HeadsUp Newsletter -
Issue 318 - HEADSUP SPECIAL - Is
the JSF really good enough? analysing the ASPI paper |
| HeadsUp Newsletter -
Issue 321 - Defence: a conservative dilemma |
| HeadsUp Newsletter -
Issue 322 - HEADSUP SPECIAL -
F/A-22As,
JSFs and 21st Century air combat |
| Defence Today - Nov/Feb
2002/2003 - F-111 Update Parts
1,
2 |
| Defence Today - May
2003 - Three Decades of the F-111 |
| Defence Today -
August 2003 - How Expensive is the F-111? |
| Defence News - Sept
2003 - Cost of killing off the F-111 |
Defence News - Dec 2003 - Towards a 'boutique Air Force' - downsizing
the RAAF
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ADA Defender - Autumn
2004
- Stretching the F-111 Past 2010
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Australian Aviation -
September/October 2002 - Managing Ageing
Aircraft
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| Australian Aviation -
Jan/Feb 2004 - Taking the 'Force'
out of Air Force? |
Australian Aviation -
March 2004 - How Defence
Miscalculated F-111 Costs
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| Australian Aviation -
December 2004 - Cruise Missile Options
for Australia (AIR 5418) |
Goon
P.A. - January 2005 - A FAREWELL
TO
ARMS - REVISITED
Goon
P.A. -
ADA Defender - Winter
2005
- Affordability
and the new
air
combat capability
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AGM-142E
Popeye Stand Off Weapon on F-111C (C. Kopp photo)
AN/ASW-55
Datalink pod on F-111C (C. Kopp photo)
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| F-111 and Related Topics Articles and Papers |
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| Australian
Aviation - June
1984 - General
Dynamics F-111 Profile |
| Australian
Aviation - June
1984 - Strike
- RAAF Style |
| Australian
Aviation - June
1984 - Pave
Tack and GBU-15 |
| Australian Aviation -
June-September 1995 - New Tusks for
the Pig [AUP], Mirror@F-111.net
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| Australian Aviation -
June 1995 - The RAAF F-111G 'G-Model
Pig', Mirror@F-111.net
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| Australian Aviation -
November 1995 - Tomahawks, Submarines
and the F-111, Mirror@F-111.net |
| Australian Aviation -
December 1995 - New Defensive
Avionics
for the F-111, Mirror@F-111.net
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| Australian Aviation -
June 1996 - The Agile Gliding
Weapon
(AWADI/BAeA Aussie Glidebomb), Mirror@F-111.net |
| Australian
Aviation - July
1996 - Sea Control - Submarines or Air Power? |
| Australian Aviation -
July 1996 - Upgrading the
RAAF's F-111Gs, Mirror@F-111.net
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| Australian Aviation -
August-December 1996, 1997 - GPS
Guided Weapons Part I through V, Mirror@F-111.net |
| Australian Aviation -
December 1996 - AGM-142E Raptor -
The RAAF's New Standoff Weapon, Mirror@F-111.net |
| Australian Aviation -
Revised 1998 - The GBU-28 Bunker Buster,Mirror@F-111.net |
| Air Power
International - Vol.4.
No.1
1998 - The AGM-88 HARM, Mirror@F-111.net
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| Air Power
International - Vol.4.
No.2
1998 - Driving the Pig
[Simulator], Mirror@F-111.net
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| Australian Aviation -
October 1998 - January 1999 - F-111 Upgrade Options I-IV, Mirror@F-111.net |
| Australian Aviation -
July 1999 - Ravens for the
RAAF? [EF-111A], Mirror@F-111.net
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| ADI - June 1999 - Response to Fred Haddock's Critique of
"Ravens for the RAAF ?" , Mirror@F-111.net |
| HeadsUp Newsletter - Issue 192 -
Tankers: Pygmies need not apply for
RAAF
requirement, Mirror@F-111.net
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| Australian Aviation -
April/May 2000 - Expanding the
Tanker Fleet Part 1, 2 , Mirror@F-111.net
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| Australian Aviation -
July-October 2001 - Pigs
Forever? [F-111 Supercruise] |
| Australian Aviation
- October 2001 - Amberley Weapon
System Business Unit, Mirror@F-111.net |
| Defence Today - May 2003 - RAAF F-111G Wild Weasel Concept |
| F-111.net hosting Experimental F-111
Camouflage Gallery |
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The
Parliamentary Debate [Click for more ...]
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Related
Links [Click for more ...]
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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).
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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).
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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).
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| 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) |
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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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![Australia's First Online Journal Covering Air Power Issues [ISSN 1832-2433]](apa-analyses.png "Australia's First Online Journal Covering Air Power Issues [ISSN 1832-2433]")
