WHO'S KIDDING WHOM?
How F-111 cuts will cripple
Aust air power
By Dr Carlo Kopp
The Defence Capability Review briefing claimed there would be no “strike capability gap” resulting from the early retirement of the RAAF’s 30+ strong F-111 fleet. This was a brave statement given the pivotal role of the F-111 in the RAAF’s force structure. Air Marshal Angus Houston outlined the intention to retire the F-111s once a “suitable capability” was available. This was said to be the addition of a “follow-on standoff weapon” on the F/A-18A and AP-3C – presumably the AGM-158 JASSM series, the addition of the GBU-31/38 JDAM on the F/A-18As and the introduction of the four to five new medium tankers.
Putting a standoff missile such as the JASSM and the JDAM on the F/A-18A does not alter the basic force structure equations in relation to combat power. That is dictated by numbers of aircraft, how many weapons they can lift, and how far they can carry them, expressed as “throw weight”.
Removal of the F-111s from the RAAF inventory amounts to a 62.5 percent reduction in RAAF throw weight! Even considering a simpler measure like relative firepower in total numbers of 2000lb weapons lifted results in a 45 percent reduction in strike capability when the F-111 is removed - half its combat strength.
We are of course expected to believe that this will change when the JSF arrives. The throw weight of 100 JSFs armed with GBU-31s comes in at about the same number as the 30 F-111s now flown – assuming no JSFs are needed for escort.
Cracks nobble Army choppers
CANBERRA – Rumours of cracks in the Australian Army’s Black Hawk helicopters have been confirmed by a report in The Australian quoting engineering documents. The fault has restricted the fleet to less than 80 percent of its target capacity during the past two years. The problem has affected 12 of the army’s fleet of 36 Black Hawks, which the Army says is caused by “dynamics and stresses experienced by helicopters”.
The cracking – in the middle of the helicopter frame beneath the rotor blades – is linked to the external stores support system, a pylon holding extra fuel tanks and weapons mountings fittings on the Australian fleet which put extra strain on the Black Hawks in operations.
Sikorsky’s General Manager of Operations in Australia, Graeme Breen, said: “In terms of the availability of the aircraft… when it was asked to, it flew well over its targets. I don’t think (the cracking has) ever limited the defence forces in meeting its operational requirement.”
Coconut diplomacy has pitfalls
HOUSTON – The US analytical group Stratfor has fingered an embarrassment for China in the Pacific. Kiribati has established diplomatic relations with Taiwan. China, maintains an important space-tracking station on the island.
“As a matter of policy, China never maintains diplomatic ties with nations that recognise Taiwan,” Strafor notes. “However, China cannot just drop ties with the island because Kiribati hosts one of its space tracking stations – used to trace satellites and, more recently, its manned space flights.” It says China’s loss and Taiwan’s gain is an interesting case study in how local politics in global backwaters can have far-reaching implications for great powers.
Kiribati agreed to Chinese construction of a space tracking station in 1997. Relations began to sour during presidential elections this year. A donation from the Chinese Ambassador of $2,848 became a major election issue.
Anote Tong, a BTK opposition candidate, won office in July. Now Beijing can live with Kiribati having ties to both China and Taiwan; it can attempt to woo Kiribati back into the fold; or cut relations and potentially forfeit the base. This would be a major setback for the Chinese space program and national prestige.
Diamantina back from Solomons
SYDNEY – HMAS Diamantina returned from on Friday after two months away in the waters off the Solomon Islands. Diamantina, with a ship’s company of 40, is only the second of the new coastal mine hunter class to conduct an operational deployment. She provided security, logistic and general support to the participating police forces.
The ship carried out patrols and conducting investigative boardings, as well as village visits with Australian Federal Police officers.
Tenix yards busy in WA
PERTH – RAN FFG-7 frigate HMAS Adelaide is back in the water after a 15-week refit and maintenance program at Tenix’s Henderson shipyard in WA. Tenix says its shiplift, maintenance and support facility has been busy with the submarines, Rankin, Dechaineux and Sheean undergoing maintenance and re-certification in recent months.
Orions will stay in Gulf
CANBERRA – The Government has decided to extend the deployment of the three Royal Australian Air Force’s maritime patrol AP-3 Orions in the Middle East by six months.
The aircraft have been conducting maritime patrols to prevent smuggling and also intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions over Iraq to support land forces.
Production starts on JSF
EL SEGUNDO – Contractors have started cutting metal for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program with production of the first major airframe components. At Northrop Grumman partner, Brek Manufacturing, milling machines started shaping the fighter’s canopy shelf, which acts as a structural fuel barrier between the fuel tank and the forward fuselage cockpit. Simultaneously, Lockheed Martin, the F-35 JSF prime contractor, began milling other parts of the F-35’s airframe at a subcontractor facility in Arlington, Texas.
“These steps take the F-35 program from design to a real aircraft,” said Steve Briggs, Northrop Grumman’s F-35 program manager. Northrop Grumman Integrated Systems sector will assemble the F-35 centre fuselages in Palmdale, California, and then ship them to Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, Fort Worth, Texas, for final assembly.
Navies on growth path
SINGAPORE – Asian governments will build up their maritime defence forces to support growing economies and face down the threat of regional tensions and terrorism. A conference was told governments in the Asia Pacific will spend a combined US$14 billion on new naval ships in 2009, double the figure for this year.
Robin Keil, senior veep with US naval analysts AMI International said the increase will come as Europe cuts its spending on naval ship construction by 20 to 25 percent. “As far as new ship construction is concerned, the Asia Pacific is going to be a more important market than Europe,” Keil said.
Why Wichita needs USAF tanker jobs
WICHITA – The recession that grips Wichita tightens every week as the aviation centre waits for new contracts such as the conversion of Boeing 767-200s to tankers for the US Air Force and for a revival in general aviation. Each week 30 to 40 Kansas families, unable to make their mortgage payments, lose their homes to sheriff’s auctions.
Wichita is home to plants for The Boeing Co., Cessna Aircraft, Bombardier Aerospace and Raytheon Aircraft. The companies have cut more than 14,000 jobs since aircraft sales went soft in 2001.
Thai turns in a record profit
BANGKOK – Thai Airways International’s annual profit rose 22 percent to a record high as a strong baht cut costs and passengers returned after the SARS scare. The 93 percent state-owned airline said it made a net profit of equivalent to US$312 million in its financial year to September 30, 2003, the highest in 43 years of operation.
Earlier, the airline had reported a huge loss in the third quarter ending June as the outbreak of SARS cut air travel. Along with other Asian carriers, Thai Airways restored flights and launched promotions to lure customers back. The airline has said passenger traffic returned to normal in July.
A delayed stock sale this week will see more than half the 400 million shares to be offered to foreign investors.
7E7 almost on the ramp?
LONDON – Boeing CEO Phil Condit reckons it’s “highly probable” his board next month will give the green light to start marketing the planned 7E7, its first, all-new commercial airliner in more than a decade. Condit also said Boeing “is leaning” towards having two engine types developed for the plane, which would be a change from original plans.
Condit was in the UK to meet Trade Secretary Patricia Hewitt – ironically the daughter of former Qantas chairman Sir Lennox Hewitt – about Britain’s decision to buy tankers. Boeing leads offering to convert Boeing 767s in the British Airways fleet. The opposition comes from a team backed EADS offering Airbus A330s.
How unlucky can you get?
NELSPRUIT – A South African air force pilot who ejected from his fighter in eastern South Africa was killed when his parachute drifted and he slammed into the windscreen of a truck driving along the N4 highway. “The pilot hit the cab of the truck and was killed instantly,” said police spokesman Mica Tlou.
“We identified the plane as an Impala which had a pilot and co-pilot on board. Both the pilots died,” Senior Superintendent Tlou said. The second pilot in the Impala attack jet landed on a rocky patch of ground nearby, the police said. Tlou said police believed the fighter jet experienced engine trouble.
Spain huffed on EADS rebuff
MADRID – Spain is unhappy over its dwindling influence in the European aerospace giant EADS and may withdraw. “Spain wants more weight, more participation, in all areas and particularly in the industrial sphere. We have the capacity for it,” a science and technology ministry spokesman said after an announcement that EADS wants to merge some production units to cut costs.
According to the Cinco Dias financial daily, Spain and associates France and Germany disagree on the EADS drive into military air tankers. Madrid wants a leading role given that the consortium’s Spanish arm has been a prominent player in its military transport sector since the approval of a project to build the A-400M military transport.
