Rhinos to reinforce ‘world’s best small air force’

The Super Hornet’s multirole capabilities – air-to-air, land and maritime strike – are crucial for Australia as an island nation. The Super Hornet is the best aircraft to meet Air Force’s air combat requirements during the transition from the F-111 through to a mature Joint Strike Fighter force. I believe the RAAF is the world’s best small air force and the Rhinos will reinforce this position.

The arrival of the Super Hornets at Amberley was the culmination of much hard work and the very strong partnership between Air Force, Defence Materiel Organisation, industry and United States Navy. The USN provided us with outstanding support throughout the training and aircraft acceptance process at Naval Air Station Lemoore.

The Boeing Company and its industry partners Raytheon, General Electric and Northrop Grumman have consistently been on schedule and on budget in delivering the jets.

It’s interesting to observe the changing face of Amberley’s flightline. When the F-111s, now in service nearly 40 years, are retired at the end of this year, the average age of our aircraft at Amberley – Super Hornets, C-17s and soon, KC-30s – will be just two years! A pretty impressive transformation in a relatively short timeframe.

The Super Hornets arrive as Amberley is being transformed into a super base. Defence is spending approximately $100 million on Super Hornet related infrastructure and developments.

The Defence Support Group has been a key partner in the development and delivery of new working accommodation for 1SQN, aircraft shelters and maintenance facilities.

It was a team approach that delivered the first Super Hornets so quickly, and there will be a teamwork approach to sustaining capability and training our people. I am pleased that Boeing has been awarded the aircraft sustainment contract and Raytheon has the Super Hornet training services support contract.

While simulation has been part of RAAF aircrew training for some time, it is also playing an increasingly important role in transitioning and training our maintainers. The Super Hornet’s arrival and approaching retirement of F-111 represents a major cultural shift for 82 Wing’s maintainers. Late last year, the Super Hornet visual environment maintenance trainer became operational at 278SQN.

This is the latest innovation in aircraft maintenance training equipment and positions the Air Force as a leader in Australian aviation training. The trainer consists of a replica Super Hornet cockpit with touchscreens that allow Air Force maintenance students to perform diagnostic and system functional checks in a realistic setting.

I look forward to 1SQN achieving initial operating capability in December this year with the first 12 Super Hornets.

All 24 Rhinos are scheduled to be flying from Amberley by the end of 2011. It is a significant part of RAAF’s transformation that will see the replacement of almost every combat platform in the next decade.

I congratulate and thank everyone who was involved in making this happen. A great job by all!