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Final
flight plans for F-111
AAP
March 10, 2006
THE fate
of the Royal Australian Air Force's veteran F-111 fleet will be decided in
the next couple of months as plans firm for the acquisition of up to 100
new Joint Strike Fighters.
RAAF head Air Marshal Geoff Shepherd said the plan was to retire the
F-111s in 2010, but that could be stretched to 2012.
"F-111 retirement is still linked
to the Hornet upgrade. 2010 is our desired time frame. We always had a
hedging out to 2012 and we are looking at that," he said.
"We need to make a decision on
that in the next couple of months and it will depend very much how the
Hornet upgrade is going.
"But the important point to make
is that we need to get out of the F-111 business before we get into the
JSF business."
Australia ordered 24 F-111s in
1963 but technical problems meant the first did not arrive until 1973.
Under current plans, both the
F-111 and Hornet fleets will be replaced by the advanced Lockheed Martin
F-35 JSF, which is scheduled to enter service in the period from 2012 to
2014. Each JSF now has a nominal price of $65.7 million with the entire
program worth up to $16billion.
RAAF Hornets are now being
upgraded with new weapons and electronics so they can fill the gap between
the retirement of the F-111s and the arrival of the JSFs.
Air Marshal Shepherd said some
elements of the Hornet upgrade, including installation of new radars and
weapons, had proceeded smoothly. "But a lot of the electronic early
warning stuff is developmental. It's being made in Australia with BAE
Systems and DSTO (Defence Science and Technology Organisation). So they
are ambitious programs," he said.
He said the RAAF had conducted
some preliminary studies that indicated it would need about 100 JSFs to
replace 21 operational F-111s and 71 Hornets.
He said the US Quadrennial
Defence Review - the four-yearly review of US defence programs released
last month - made no mortal cuts to JSF, although some flexibility had
gone.
"The price has gone up slightly
and we are looking to see how that will affect us," he said.
"But the figure of 100 is still
affordable and within the program, and the detailed analysis we will
conduct throughout the year - with our force development people and the
scientific modelling with DSTO and in America - will define the number.
"But the figure of 100 is not far
off the mark."
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