Royal Australian Air Force [RAAF] News, Discussions and Updates

weegee

Active Member
6th C-17 ordered?

I saw on another website today that it seems as thought the RAAF has gone ahead an ordered the 6th C-17 for delivery next year is this true? It is great if it is true. :)
 
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Andrew McL

New Member
I saw on another website today that it seems as thought the RAAF has gone ahead an ordered the 6th C-17 for delivery next year is this true? It is great if it is true. :)
The order was actually placed last year but the brakes were put on until the government had a better idea of where it stood with this year's defence underspend.

Next, watch the BFA money get taken away...
 

John Newman

The Bunker Group

Volkodav

The Bunker Group
Verified Defense Pro
Not sure, but either way the result is the same. As long as it can be pushed out past the forward estimates...
Maybe the RAAF could invest in an Airbourne Airfield Construction Squadron and just make every airstrip they need to use big / good enough to operate Herks and C-17s?
 

jack412

Active Member
The specs I saw in the press is for a B-52 aircraft to be able to land on a lot of the airstrips. I don't mind having joint use bases, I only hope we aren't footing all the bills
 

gf0012-aust

Grumpy Old Man
Staff member
Verified Defense Pro
What do you get when you put 2 halfwitts together, a fullwitt or a Bill and Carlo joint effort?
This was too funny not to post

I'm going to force myself to not read it... but one of the Brady Bunch theme songs is stuck in my head at the moment.....


ie "keep on , keep on, keeping on"
 

jack412

Active Member
You didn't miss a thing, SU-35's will rule the sky, VHF is the end of stealth and S-500's will stop anything you can throw at it.
 

gf0012-aust

Grumpy Old Man
Staff member
Verified Defense Pro
VHF is the end of stealth
it's no wonder the geeks in DSTO and DARPA cack themselves laughing at their grand claims of technology expertise

the howl of the luddites... a new silver bullet technology will kill a system solution....

hallelujah
 

Trackmaster

Member
Having just re-subscribed to AW&ST after an 18 month break, I must admit I was very surprised to see the by-line of our friend.
I am wondering about asking for a refund.
 

jack412

Active Member
Bill does the online stuff, I don't know what the mag is like now, but it use to be worth reading. I guess you will soon find out if they have created drama content of fear, uncertancy and doubt to feed a wider mainstream audience that like to read that stuff and don't know any better.

The transcripts are out for ADF to the committee, as expected APA and Repsim are clowns who don't have a clue,
when APA have presented f-35a APUC costs from $80m to $170m to the committee and are now saying $200+m, I guess that's what Jensen means when he said they were better than DMO on cost. But it's lost me how he imagined that, I think he must be on APA's email list

submissions
House of Representatives Committees – Parliament of Australia

committee
House of Representatives Committees – Parliament of Australia
 

jack412

Active Member
How funny, I searched and found this one of his rants, it seems he's a f-111/f-22 fanboy and blaming ADF for the f-35/fa-18e
Air Power Australia Analyses

heck, if even his own Liberal party didn't trust him enough for a confidential briefing...I guess he does have problems
Hasn't he read about the f-22 and how lucky we are we didn't get it, along with the $150m upgrade to try and fix it. it would have sent defense broke and made everything on the project of concern list look like model projects

Does he forget that Howard announced his decision to buy the f-35 on returning from a trip to the states treading on some ADF and Co toes, that and how good it would be if we had nuclear power station and a multinational waste dump.
Howard also went against ADF at the time when they said the legacy hornet will suffice till the then expected f-35 delivery took place and ordered 24 super hornets
 

gf0012-aust

Grumpy Old Man
Staff member
Verified Defense Pro
Howard also went against ADF at the time when they said the legacy hornet will suffice till the then expected f-35 delivery took place and ordered 24 super hornets
not entirely correct, RAAF always had SH as a contingency model in case classic -fixes fell through - and it was due primarily to USN relationships with RAAF that paved the way for it
 

weegee

Active Member
RAAF USAF Relationship

Can someone explain to me why we are such valued friends to the US? I know why we are so keen to have a good relationship but why are we so valued to the US what's in it for them? I know we have a fairly high tech force but we are relatively small in numbers.
It is nice though to buy equipment and get it so fast because we cut into US production lines i.e C-17, SH etc

Is perhaps because we have modern forces, we are highly trained share a lot of common munitions etc, I mean with the RAAF all or most of our planes are US based as are are weapons I would imagine. So when we do exercises we slot nicely into what ever they are doing and vis versa? I also know due to the ANZUS treaty Australia has voluntarily gone into a lot of conflict to support our special friendship with the US but in everyone's honest opinion if Aust or a territory was ever really threatened I know it WILL NEVER HAPPEN but if we were threatened would the USA attack with all guns blazing? so to speak.
I am to young to remember but I wonder why the US never got involved in the Falklands when that kicked off, after all the UK also has a very special relationship or did the UK not want any assistance?
Thanks
 

Abraham Gubler

Defense Professional
Verified Defense Pro
Can someone explain to me why we are such valued friends to the US? I know why we are so keen to have a good relationship but why are we so valued to the US what's in it for them? I know we have a fairly high tech force but we are relatively small in numbers.
Well your initial thoughts that it has something to do with our military capability is way off track. The basis of the Australian-US relationship is in our shared history and culture and our current strong economic and political ties. Australia provides a very useful well respected third party that supports and validates American actions. We are also more important to them economically than mere numbers may indicate.

but in everyone's honest opinion if Aust or a territory was ever really threatened I know it WILL NEVER HAPPEN but if we were threatened would the USA attack with all guns blazing? so to speak.
I am to young to remember but I wonder why the US never got involved in the Falklands when that kicked off, after all the UK also has a very special relationship or did the UK not want any assistance?
The US didn’t get involved directly in the Falklands War because the British did not ask them to. Now if the British had their carriers sunk and needed American help they would have been there. Even though thanks to the Cold War and Latin American politics it would have seriously complicated things.
 

south

Well-Known Member
additionally although WRT to the Falklands the US did not make direct contributions of men/platforms they did provide significant contributions in Intel, weapons and logistics
 
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