[F-18]
There’s been numerous squawkings in the blogosphere and the ABC about the decision to buy stop-gap Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornets at some considerable expense.
Many say we should have bought the American F-22 Raptors, others that we should have gone with the flashy Russian Su-27’s.
The confustion stems from a piece of Government mis-direction, that it is trying to replace the F-111 strategic bombers.
The F-111’s have been replaced, and the replacement is cruise missiles.
What we’re seeing instead is a planned massive increase in the size of the RAAF’s air superiority and tactical bombing capability.
Let’s briefly look at the posited better options to the Super Hornets.
The F-22 is hugely expensive and the Americans won’t sell it to us anyway. End of discussion.
The Russian options are even more hilarious.
If you rely solely on the specs listed on the back of model airplane boxes then the Su27 is indeed a magnificent machine.
But in this era where dogfighting (more technically referred to as “within visual range combat”) is also known as “everybody dies”, due to pilots now being able to designate any target they can see to autonomously guided missiles, it really doesn’t matter much.
The Super Hornets have a number of more prosaic advantages.
1) The APG-79 radar. Which lets them track and fire on multiple targets both in the air and on the ground, more than can be said for a whole ANZAC class frigate.
2) Simulators. The last evenly contested modern war was the Falklands. Where a handful of sub-sonic fighters with well trained pilots held off an airforce of hundreds of supersonic aircraft but inferior pilots. Good simulators allow pilots to do more training at a fraction of the cost and the American simulators are vastly superior to the Russky gear.
3) Integration. Most defence procurement disasters come from trying to shoe-horn unfamiliar equipment into the package. Getting our western systems to talk to the Russian avionics has to be viewed as high risk.
4) Stealthy. These things are always suspect but most reports have the F-18 E/F being stealthier than the original F-117 stealth fighter from in front (the cross section which really matters). Certainly much stealthier than big racy Russian beasts built out of solid titanium.
5) Familiarity. We already operate the earlier version of the F-18.
6) Training opportunities. We can send pilots to the US for training.
7) Compatibility. With most current planning suggesting we’ll be fighting any serious wars in the near future with the USA having the same kit as the US Navy and Marine Corps will be very useful.
8) Friend or Foe. If we’re fighting with American equipped allies against Russian equipped allies then it’s a very good thing to not be flying planes which look like the enemy’s,
As to the lack of transparency in the process, when you’re buying kit it’s considered a bit of a diplomatic faux pas to name one of your biggest trading partners as the future target of it.
Su-27’s make a great choice if you’re an Indonesian Air Marshal looking to convince your public you’ve made a great choice with some flashy but irrelevant specifications, while the kickback flows into your Swiss bank account.
Notso Hotso for us.
