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WASHINGTON, April 15, 1986 (UPI) -- The blistering U.S. airstrike against Libya was a victory in the global battle against terrorism, President Reagan said Tuesday, warning the United States is ready to repeat its message ''in the only language Khadafy seems to understand.'' As Reagan pledged he will not relent in his campaign to ''eradicate the scourge of terror in the modern world,'' reports from the Libyan capital of Tripoli said that Moammar Khadafy's 15-month-old adopted daughter was killed in the bombing and two of the Libyan leaders's sons were seriously hurt. After night fell in Tripoli Tuesday, the thud...

The controversy swirling around the F-35 joint strike fighter echoes previous battles fought over aircraft tasked with serving more than one master. Perhaps the central question in today’s debate is whether a single airplane designed to perform many missions adequately is a better and truly more affordable choice than several airplanes, each designed to perform a single mission flawlessly. In 1968, the Navy had an unequivocal answer: No. But were they right? In the early 1960s both the Navy and the Air Force were shopping for new combat aircraft. The Navy needed a carrier-based interceptor capable of engaging Soviet bombers...

OTTAWA — The Liberal government is intent on buying Super Hornet fighter jets, according to multiple sources. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s cabinet reportedly discussed the issue last week, and while no formal decision was taken, one top-level official said: “They have made up their minds and are working on the right narrative to support it.” Rather than a full replacement of the air force’s aging CF-18 fighter fleet, it’s believed the purchase will be labelled an interim measure to fill what Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan has warned is a pending “gap” in Canada’s military capabilities. The Liberals promised during the...

f you're into special airplanes even a little, here is a video I'm sure you'll enjoy. These guys do a remarkable job getting their aircraft back on the ground with a minimal amount of damage. It could have very easily gone the other way. Also, notice early in the video there is a sequence showing a F-111 dumping fuel with the afterburners on lighting up the night sky. Something a little unique to the F-111. The Australians flew the F-111 a lot longer than our Air Force. The airplane was originally designed to land on a carrier deck so the...

Veteran Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) F-111 aircrews are drawing on their strike experience to create the first squadrons of the nation’s F/A-18F Super Hornet fleet. Among them is Wing Commander Terence Deeth, the skipper of Australia’s No. 6 Sqdn., which takes on operational training duties for the fleet. The F-model Super Hornet has a two-person crew, like the now-retired F-111, and a portion of the latter’s navigator-bombardiers are being retrained as weapon systems officer (WSO) cadres and aircrews for the F/A-18F. WSOs will be a subspecialty within the larger RAAF category of air combat officer (ACO), which was instituted...

Boeing Marks Retirement of Royal Australian Air Force F-111 FleetAMBERLEY, Queensland, Dec. 2, 2010 -- The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] will bid a fond farewell to the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) F-111 strike fighters that the company has supported for more than 14 years when the fleet is retired on Dec. 3. As prime contractor for F-111 through-life support activities since 1996, Boeing Defence Australia has designed, developed and delivered technologies and modifications to improve the operational effectiveness of the F-111 fleet from its facilities at RAAF Base Amberley. These upgrades included aircraft overhauls conducted under the F-111 Weapons...

AMBERLEY'S mighty F-111s will take to Queensland skies for the final time on Friday. While Friday morning's flyover of the southeast corner and northern NSW will mark the fighter-bomber's public swansong, on Thursday the RAAF community bid farewell to the beloved aircraft the best way it knew how. ..... The F-111s will take off from Amberley about 11.20am before passing over Laidley, Ipswich, Rosewood and The group will then split with one contingent flying a northern route over Sandgate, Redcliffe, Bribie Island, Caloundra, Maroochydore and Noosa by 12.05pm. The second group will pass over the Gold Coast, Coolangatta, Byron Bay...

F-111s streak towards retirement THEY arrived late and amid much controversy, but 37 years later the Royal Australian Air Force is counting down the days to the retirement of the F-111s. The decision to acquire the supersonic strike aircraft is now recognised one of Australia's best defence purchases. Ordered by the Menzies government in 1963, the first F-111 arrived in 1973. The Amberley-based 6 Squadron, west of Brisbane, is operating the last active F-111 medium-range bombers in the world. The RAAF has planned a series of events to mark the passing of the aircraft which gave Australia a huge technological...

Strategic Needs and Force Structure Analysis: The Thinking Behind the F-22A and Evolved F-111 Force Mix Option (excerpt) (Source: Air Power Australia; published Oct. 4, 2010) Air Power Australia, a group of Australian opponents to the Joint Strike Fighter which have, in the past, published interesting analysis of the aircraft’s drawbacks and operational shortcomings, have now come up with a proposal to instead upgrade the F-111 strike fighters that the Royal Australian Air Force is due to retire at year-end. Their rationale for modernizing the F-111, excerpted from an improbable political fiction scenario backing their call for parallel procurement of...

Pigs will soon fly for the last time for RAAF Brendan Nicholson THE "Flying Pigs"are taking part in their last major exercise before retirement after 37 years with the Royal Australian Air Force. The long-range F-111 bomber was nicknamed for its ability to "hunt at night with its nose in the weeds" thanks to terrain-following radar that let it sweep in on targets at a low level. The iconic swing-wing aircraft was ordered for the RAAF in the 1960s because they could carry nuclear weapons and had the range to bomb Jakarta at a time when Indonesia was seen as...

Air Force wants old F-111 strike bombers destroyed Cameron Stewart THE Royal Australian Air Force is looking for someone to do what the Soviet Union could only dream of during the Cold War -- destroy its F-111 strike bombers. The Defence Department has issued a tender to turn half its F-111 fleet -- the pride of the RAAF for a generation -- into what will surely be the nation's most expensive scrap metal. It will be an undignified end to the warplane, known affectionately as the "pig", which was ordered by Robert Menzies in 1963 with the requirement that it...

Australia envisages that its Boeing F/A-18F Super Hornets, which will begin entering service from March, could become a "long bridge" for an air force capability gap, and remain operational well into the 2030s. Canberra has ordered 24 of the two-seat aircraft to cover a capability shortfall between the retirement of the Royal Australian Air Force's General Dynamics F-111s by year-end and the induction of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, projected to take place from 2014. However, they could stay in use much longer, says Gp Capt Steve Robertson, head of the service's air combat transition wing and officer...

Australia's air force said Saturday that one of its F-111 jets made an emergency landing earlier this week during an aerial display at the Singapore Airshow and will not participate in further performances. The F-111's aircrew radioed a distress call after receiving an engine fire warning just two minutes into its seven-minute performance Thursday, said Royal Australian Air Force Flight Lieutenant Leon Izatt, who was part of a two-man team piloting the jet. Its crew immediately terminated the flight and made an emergency landing on one of the plane's two engines. The airshow was likely to have been the last...

Aardvark's Asian Airshow Adieu Posted by Robert Wall at 1/30/2010 10:19 PM CST The F-111 has been one of the most spectacular air show aircraft in modern times, thanks to its ability to trail a “wall of fire.” But with the Royal Australian Air Force due to retire its F-111s this year, the long-range interdiction aircraft is saying fair well to the air show circuit. The Singapore Airshow will be the last Asian event where the F-111 will show off its ability to dump fuel, set it alight, and trail it. During its daily air display, the F-111 will twice...

F-111 - the RAAF's white elephant in the sky By Ian McPhedran From: The Daily Telegraph THE RAAF's venerated F-111 strike aircraft, known fondly as the "Pig", has become the world's most maintenance-intensive war plane. By the time the remaining 18 F-111s retire late next year, taxpayers will have forked out hundreds of millions of dollars just to keep the 1960s jets in the air. It takes maintenance crews 180 hours work for every hour that an F-111 jet stays aloft. By comparison, support crews require only 30 hours for every hour that the world's most expensive fighter plane -...

THIS "shredded" and incapacitated F-111 soared across southeast Queensland homes before a spectacular emergency landing at Amberley Air Base. The jet was flying at 900m on a test bombing raid at Evans Head, northern NSW, when a pelican struck the fibreglass nose and was sucked into an engine... The nation's air combat chief, Air Commodore Neil Hart, said the jet's predicament and "precautionary emergency landing" was not serious enough to alert the public... "One engine was working fine, while the other was at reduced power." He described the circumstances of the incident, which happened between 10am and noon, as near...

THE fleet of 26 F-111 aircraft has been temporarily grounded following an emergency landing by one of the RAAF fighters in Queensland today. Defence Minister Brendan Nelson said the grounding was necessary to ensure there was nothing structurally wrong with the planes. Air Marshall Geoff Shepherd said the left-wing wheel of the fighter fell off shortly after take off, an event that had never occurred in the 30-year flying history of the planes. Dr Nelson paid tribute to the pilot, support crew and civilian emergency personnel for the way they handled the incident, which occurred at RAAF Amberley air base...

THE North Korean freighter used to smuggle 150kg of heroin into Australia three years ago now rests on the ocean's bottom, after being destroyed by a pair of laser-guided bombs. Four F-111 strike bombers flying from RAAF Amberley in Queensland proved dead on target as the 3500-tonne freighter drifted 140km off Jervis Bay this morning. Two 800kg precision guided bombs struck the Pong Su's hull with massive blasts, showering debris over a wide area. The vessel sank quickly into deep water. The Pong Su was seized off the New South Wales coast in April 2003 after a four-day chase involving...