FED: F 111 flying remains a risky business

AAP General News (Australia)
04-19-1999
FED: F 111 flying remains a risky business

By Max Blenkin, Defence Correspondent

CANBERRA, April 19 AAP - Flying jet fighters and bombers low and fast is always going to be
a risky business.

Even with the most modern of electronic aids, travelling at near tree or wavetop level at
500 knots at night, leaves little margin for error.

Up to now, eight crewmen have died in seven RAAF F-111 accidents, the most recent at Guyra,
northern New South Wales, on September 13, 1993 when two died. Before that two died in another
accident near Tenterfield, also in northern NSW, in April 1987.

The latest mishap, in the South China Sea, appears set to take the toll to 10.

What happened remains unclear at this stage.

Four F-111 aircraft from the strike-reconnaissance group based at Amberley, Queensland,
were participating in the regular multi-national exercises under the Five Power Defence
Arrangements.

This exercise includes naval and air force elements from Malaysia, the United Kingdom,
Singapore and Australia operating what is known as the integrated air defence system, or IADS.

Four RAAF F-111s were flying pretend maritime strikes which involved flying low and fast
and simulating release of weapons - probably Harpoon missiles - against enemy ships.

It appears the aircraft struck the top of a peak on a small island about 10.30pm. It's
unclear whether the aircraft was going to or returning from the mission.

The aircraft was a G-model F-111, one of 15 acquired from the United States Air Force in
1995 at the bargain price of about $4.7 million each.

The F-111 remains probably the most controversial Australian defence acquisition.

Twenty-four were ordered off the drawing board in 1963 with the aim of giving the RAAF a
long range capability to bomb the then-bellicose Indonesia into submission if need be.

At that time, Australia had not formally renounced the nuclear option and there appears to
have been an unspoken understanding that F-111s would provide a means of delivering atomic
weapons if it ever came to that.

But from the start, the project was plagued with technical problems and a continually
escalating price tag.

The first F-111 was handed to the RAAF in September 1968 but then promptly grounded as USAF
aircraft operating in Vietnam started falling from the sky with fatigue problems in the
then-revolutionary swing-wing configuration.

In the meantime, the RAAF was forced to lease a squadron of Phantom fighter-bombers to make
good the shortfall in capability.F-111 deliveries proper did not start until June 1973.

Early RAAF history of the F-111 was marked by a variety of mishaps, although there appears
to have been no particular pattern.

In one case off the Evans Head bombing range in NSW in October 1977, an F-111 crashed after
it ingested a pelican.

An engine fire forced the crew of another F-111 to punch out off the New Zealand coast in
October 1978. That demonstrated the inherent survivability of the F-111's innovative escape
system in which the entire crew module ejects - providing there's enough time.

Neither crew member reported even getting wet feet and both went on to rewarding RAAF
careers. One, now Air Commodore Pete Growder, currently commands the strike-reconnaissance
group.

The RAAF acquired another four F-111s in 1981 to make up aircraft losses. Similarly, the
former Labor government announced in 1993 it would acquire 15 used G-model aircraft from the
USAF for the bargain basement price of $4.7 million each.

The idea was to extend the life of the F-111 fleet to around 2020 by providing a source of
spares and attrition aircraft.

When finally phased out of service, the F-111 will have served almost half a century,
longer than any other piece of capital equipment in Australian Defence Force service.

With the F-111s out of USAF service, the RAAF remains the sole user.

Although a 1960s design, the F-111 remains an enormously capable aircraft. Affectionately
referred to by crew as "the pig", the F-111 is able to perform low level long strike tasks
better than any other aircraft flown by any air force anywhere in the world.

RAAF F-111s have been almost continuously modernised, with the latest avionics update
program installing full digital electronic systems and a laser targeting system.

That allows the weapons operator to view the target on an in-cockpit screen and place the
cross hairs precisely where he wants the bomb to strike.

As well as laser-guided bombs, the F-111s can be equipped with Harpoon anti-ship missiles,
longer range AGM-142 guided missiles, air to air missiles, or a very large quantity of
old-fashioned "dumb" bombs.

AAP mb/mfh/kr

KEYWORD: F111 (BACKGROUNDER)

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