The five pillars

Not long after this, the JSF program began to slip to the right, and the gap between it and the RAAF’s F-111 widened significantly. At the same time, four of the five pillars also began to slip, meaning it was unlikely they would have achieved Initial Operational Capability (IOC) by the scheduled December 2010 F-111 switch off date.

It’s now history that then Defence Minister Brendan Nelson saw the gap emerging and asked for a list of alternatives from the RAAF, one of which was to retain the F-111 for a few years longer, another to buy or lease a bridging fighter, and a third to continue with the status quo and hope for the best. While extending the F-111 to 2013 was thought possible, many of its sustainment and personnel pipelines had already been ‘switched off’ and the cost and risk involved in resurrecting them was considered too great, as was the operational risk of extending a 40 year old airframe.

And although the RAAF still thought the classic Hornet could cover the widening gap, it had also been keeping a watching brief on the Super Hornet for several years and knew the obvious low risk and commonality benefits of this option.

And so Nelson decided to buy a ‘bridging air combat capability’ (BACC) to cover the gap, and the RAAF orderd 24 F/A-18F Super Hornet Block IIs for delivery from March 2010. That program has been a model acquisition program, with the Super Hornets being 99 per cent common to those operated by the US Navy, with only an Instrument Landing System (ILS) added to replace the US Navy’s carrier landing system. As we go to press, the last four of the 24 ‘Rhinos’ are due to be delivered to Amberley, with the project currently running some three months ahead of schedule and more than $300 million under budget.

But what of the five pillars? As we’ve reported extensively in AA, the Boeing 737-based Wedgetail finally entered service last year after a more than four year delay. There are still some ESM integration and radar performance issues to be resolved, but these are said to be in hand, and previously feared performance shortfalls have been addressed. Four of the six Wedgetails have been delivered to the RAAF, with the other two to join the fleet by mid nest year, and the RAAF hopes to declare IOC and deploy an aircraft to a Red Flag exercise in 2012.

The JASSM missile recently completed three successful test shots from RAAF F/A-18 classic Hornets in the US and at Woomera, and it is expected IOC for this long range precision strike weapon will be declared and the program be removed from the government’s Projects of Concern (POC) list by the end of this year. The Vigilare C2 system was recently deleted from the POC list after passing an operational evaluation at RAAF Tindal’s NROC facility and completing its installation at the EROC centre at Williamtown.

The RAAF’s 33SQN has now taken delivery of two KC-30B MRTT aircraft at Amberley, and began RAAF crewed flights in September. Two more aircraft are due to be delivered in the next few months with the fifth to follow in mid to late 2012, and the transition is beginning to accelerate to IOC of the wing mounted refuelling pods and Air Logistic Systems (ALC) capability by the end of that year. But the RAAF will keep the KC-30A’s refuelling boom stowed for the foreseeable future due to ongoing software development of the boom by Airbus, and is unlikely to declare IOC with it until 2013.

And finally, most of the capability enhancements of the classic Hornet HUG program were completed in July this year. But the ongoing structural refurbishment program (SRP) is expected to continue until the Hornet is retired, with an increasing number of fatigue and corrosion issues being found on the 25 year old airframes.