There would be more risk to the new government politically in cancelling additional SHs and bringing the F-35 acquisition forward. At the moment the whole thing is a political non-issue and most governments would be happy to leave it that way.
I'd been wondering which Squadron was going to transition first to the F-35, it appears that No 3 Sqn will be the first, I'd imagined that maybe No 2 OCU would have transitioned first, then an operational Sqn.
Do you mean these?
Would it be viable to buy additional C-17 and C-27 so as to dispense with the C-130 all together? It would be interesting to see an analysis on cost vs capability of two types vs three types and what the best mix would be. A possibility should the Herc be dropped in favor of additional Spartans and Globemasters would be a niche tilt-rotor capability.
So you suggest acquire say 10 CV22 Osprey & get rid of the Hercs? Your Spartans and Globemasters would give you a good mix if you added say 5 and 3 respectively. The Ospreys would be niche and it could do COD to the LHDs amongst many other taskings. I understand that they are some what pricey to acquire and operate at the moment.
The Ospreys are a bit of a dream and I will get back to them later. On dropping the Hercs I suppose it would come down to what they can do more economically than the Spartan or Globemaster and whether they conduct these tasks often enough to make retaining the Herc the more sensible and affordable option.
I never thought of dropping the Hercules all together, but would be interesting to see if it would feasible. To be honest I think their is a case for acquiring V22 but as said the $ value would be the main factors in not getting them but it rely would be the replacement for DHC-4 Caribou and able to use the LHD but from memory would only be able to take one st a time due to its size.
Nope. Too slow and too light for modern warfare.
The Osprey doesn't fit into the RAAF's current force elements so if they were to be acquired they would have to be in place of Army or Navy helicopters or part of a new Air Force establishment. You could, and people did, make arguments about the Osprey replacing the Bou but the C-27J has been tagged for that job and will no doubt push the former Bou force far more into the SOF support role than they have in the past with things like ISR and palletised gunships. As it stands the C-27J will have the RAAF’s mission for infil and exfil of SOF and since the RAAF lacks an operational CSAR capability there is no need for the Osprey. Australia would also make a great base for the USMC’s MAG 36 which is currently reequipping with Ospreys at Okinawa. Two squadrons of these at Darwin would give them unrestricted training operations and huge reach for Army and USMC infantry based at Darwin in time of emergency.
Yes the V-22 does provide some niche capabilities, but there is a significant pricetag to do so. I would need to either go through my info or some of my old posts, but IIRC the price for a V-22 and a new C-130J is about the same. Of course were the V-22 to enter ADF service, then the usual support activites would also need to be stood up (training flight crews, ground crews, etc) which would add more to the cost of standing up a V-22 unit. AFAIK in terms of lift, a V-22 cannot move the same size cargoes that a C-27J can move, but can get close in terms of displacement to the cargo loads of a C-27J and CH-47.
Valid points.
Using the V-22 as a lifter or assault transport is pretty daft and gawd knows how the USMC got away with it. But for everyone else the V-22 does provide a pretty impressive capability for supporting SOF and CSAR activities. Or if so fitted as a shipboard ASW/ASuW capability. The one big plank against it for SOF support is the ability to transport a SOV. The new GD SOV however fixes this blank which is cold comfort for SOF that have equipped with Supacats. But in a few years when the fleet of Supacats can be retired to guarding gates then the V-22, Flyer combo will be transformative to SOF infil, exfil.