Posted on 09/29/2014 12:18:51 PM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
AFTER spending weeks locked in briefing rooms poring over maps and intelligence reports the RAAF’s top-gun strike fighter pilots are ready to take up the fight to murderous Islamic militants in Iraq.
Since Tuesday dozens of the Super Hornet pilots and air combat officers (ACOs) have been working in secure air-conditioned briefing rooms at task group headquarters at al-Minhad air base near Dubai reviewing tasking orders, combat reports and preparing for war.
Meanwhile teams of weapons technicians and so-called “black handers”, who arm and maintain the lethal $70 million strike jets, are working long shifts in a huge air conditioned hangar preparing the eight RAAF fighters and an array of “smart” weapons for missions that could begin this weekend.
In between the detailed briefings — that began back at their base Amberley near Brisbane — the two-person flight crews, aged mostly in their 20s, will be flying brief sorties in the skies above the Arabian Desert to hone their flying skills on what former air force chief Geoff “Shep” Shepherd calls the “knife edge”.
They won’t be engaged in air-to-air combat or “dog fights” during the campaign against the Islamic State, but they will be flying eight to 10-hour missions in a cramped cockpit over hostile territory where the trophy value of a downed Australian pilot would be priceless.
As the Government contemplates when the jets will join the fight the crews are planning the long transit from Dubai to northern Iraq, the same distance as Melbourne to Alice Springs. The “four ship” flights of jets will refuel from a RAAF KC-30A tanker or another
(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.au ...
They IS ready to roll!
Super Hornets rock! They and their MRF berthren F-16 Falcon have been the most flexible and useful milcraft in history.
I love the rest of them, but F-16 and F/A 18 are special in my heart.
Too darn bad I have acrophobia and bad eyes — in my heart I always wanted to be a pilot.
Jet: MRF ping (brother fighter to the Falcon)
All I can say is kick Muzzie terrorist ass!
Nice of them to provide the battle plan, navigation routes and other intelligence for our enemies.
I always thought the Super Hornet was an aesthetically beautiful aircraft. It looks the way a fighter aircraft ought to look.
“Nice of them to provide the battle plan, navigation routes and other intelligence for our enemies.”
Exactly what *I* thought.
Let’s hope that’s just a suggested plan.
I was originally a Marine Corps Aviation Officer Candidate. Until I got to the MEPS in Atlanta, where they told me my eyeballs weren’t any good.
So I enlisted as a Bandsman instead. Probably a better decision in the long run.
That’s right. Tell the enemy where you’re at, what you’re planning there, and what you’re gonna do it with. Gotta love that treasonous media mindset.
<<So I enlisted as a Bandsman instead. Probably a better decision in the long run.<<
I had to look that one up — played in the band? If so, I should have thought of that as I was pretty darn good trumpet player in HS and college...
If I missed I apologize (but was still a good player...)
Not so fast.
We can bomb all we want in the ME, but the ‘militant’ muzzies at home, swimming in the ocean of ‘peaceful’ muzzies are very much something to be reckoned with.
What happened in OK is but the tip of the iceberg. We’re fighting muzzies in the ME while, at the same time, we are importing them as if there is no tomorrow.
And there won’t be a tomorrow if we import enough of them.
Sigh. It should have been the Super Tomcat 21.
I appreciate their help. But is like they are in much danger. ISIS doesn’t have sophisticated AA missiles. They are going to bomb ISIS, but there isn’t much fighting back.
F-16 ping.
>>Sigh. It should have been the Super Tomcat 21.<<
Don’t et me started on how politics shut down the F-14... :(
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