DefenceUpdate – F-111 reminiscences

But the Australian Phantoms were to be short lived, serving less than three years with the RAAF pending the much delayed arrival of the F-111C, so I didn’t much care for the F-111 at the time. The jet had had a difficult service entry, and was described as the ‘Flying Opera House’ due to a number of then unexplained crashes in USAF service, the subsequent delayed delivery, dramatic project cost escalations, and a number of early crashes in RAAF service as well. The F-111 was considered a bit of an ugly duckling, but it still held a certain mystique.

In 1977 a new aviation magazine appeared on the shelves of my local newsagency. Then an annual, the very first edition of Australian Aviation & Defence Review looked great, even if it did feature an F-111C on the cover, banking towards the camera high above broken cloud. I scraped together the $2.50 cover price, and bought my first aviation magazine.

Over the years, my appreciation for the F-111 grew – not only did the sleek lines appeal to a total teenage airplane nut, but its ‘swing wings’, speed and payload were also impressive. As I became more aware of defence issues, due in no small part to Carlo Kopp’s excellent ‘Technology Explained’ series in the same magazine (the name of which had been shortened to Australian Aviation by this time), the coolness value of the jet also rose.

In 1995 when I first started writing, I met then AVM Dave Rogers and WGCDR Kym Osley, both F-111 navigators, and was invited to visit the then new simulator being built at Wormald in Sydney and to subsequently spend a couple of days at Amberley as a guest of 1SQN, of which WGCDR Osley was by then the new CO. (Now an AVM, Osley will soon finish his tenure as Australian Defence Attaché to Washington, and will return to head up the New Air Combat Capability (NACC) office.)

I was made to feel incredibly welcome at 1SQN, being asked to participate in planning a training mission which involved a simulated strike on a target near Chinchilla in central QLD, to observe the crews (which included then commander of Strike Reconnaissance Group, AIRCDRE Peter Growder and then OC 82WG, and later CAF, GPCAPT Geoff Shepherd) step to and pre-flight the jets, and then to sit in on the post mission debrief afterwards. I gained a real appreciation of the F-111’s capability on that and subsequent visits, as well as the incredible effort the RAAF maintainers and industry put into keeping it serviceable.

Moving ahead into the early 2000s, I was initially excited about industry proposals to substantially upgrade the F-111, an effort which would not only see it remain in service for another 20 or more years, but would keep it at the forefront of capability. But the 2002 decision to sole-source the Air 6000 F-111 and F/A-18 replacement program to the then emerging F-35A JSF put an end to those aspirations.

Initially disappointed about what might have been, in subsequent discussions with senior RAAF and industry people, I was soon convinced that any efforts to keep the F-111 going past 2012, by which time it would have been in service nearly 40 years, would have required huge investment and technical risk. The RAAF was committed to a fifth generation, low observable solution for its future combat needs, and no amount of upgrades could make the F-111 fit this description. But it is somewhat ironic that the F-111’s replacement is also suffering from delays and funding issues, and that it has again become necessary to introduce an interim or ‘bridging’ strike capability in the F/A-18F Super Hornet.

And so it was on December 3 that the F-111 was retired from RAAF service, the last landing appropriately being made by A8-125, the first jet to touch down at Amberley in 1973. I had been up to Amberley 10 days previously for an F-111 media day at which one of the jets put on a spiriting display and 6SQN and ACG personnel went out of their way to accommodate media access to the jets and the people that operated them, and made a point of putting the camera and the tape recorder down for a while and just soak up the atmosphere. I had also planned to go to Amberley on December 3 for the final flights, but at the last minute decided against it due to a suspect weather forecast and my need to be back in Sydney that evening.

But former Australian Aviation photographer and production editor, Paul Sadler kept me informed with minute by minute text updates of events on the day, and I must admit to wiping away a tear more than once, especially when he told me they had managed to launch six jets, and also when 125 had landed.

The team comprised of 82WG, 6SQN and their industry partners worked hard to keep the jet tactically relevant right up to the last day, and should be proud that they ensured the F-111 went out as it deserved, on top.
But I still love the Phantom…