Mon Sep 17, 2007 4:09 pm
Hornet's nest - are we buying?
The Age 09/16/2007
Author: Tom Hyland
Australian officials are reported to have sounded out the US about buying more Super Hornet jet fighters, on top of the 24 ordered in a controversial $6.6 billion deal to plug a potential gap in our air defences.
The respected US magazine Aviation Week has reported Australia has "quietly expressed interest" in buying a second squadron of 24 Super Hornets.
It said Australia could also be interested in an electronic attack version of the aircraft, known as the Growler, used to counter enemy communications, radar and missile systems.
"They would be bought with budget surpluses, not with the regular defence budget," the article says.
The US Navy and the plane's maker, Boeing, are keen to secure foreign orders to keep the Super Hornet production line running until the introduction of the new Joint Strike Fighter (JSF).
Australia's existing order was made despite RAAF advice that the Super Hornet was not needed and was outclassed by Russian planes being bought by Asian air forces.
Any further purchase would trigger renewed controversy over the Government's defence acquisitions.
A spokesman for Defence Minister Brendan Nelson flatly denied the Government was planning to buy more Super Hornets.
"Absolutely not. There is no consideration of a further purchase," he told The Sunday Age.
The US Navy has been testing Super Hornets and Growlers in strike forces that could compete with the JSF.
Australia is also planning to buy 100 JSFs for $16 billion.
The Super Hornets on order are designed to fill any gap between the retirement of the RAAF's F111 bombers in 2010 and the arrival of the first JSFs in 2013.
The RAAF's former air commander, retired air vice-marshall Peter Criss, a strong critic of the Super Hornet and the JSF, said Dr Nelson should resist US pressure to buy more Super Hornets.
"I can understand why Boeing and the US Navy would like us to buy more," he said.
"The JSF is already delayed and it will fall further behind. I have no doubt the US is dead keen for us to buy more."
Aviation Week is not the only journal to suggest Australia could be interested in more of the planes. In July, Flight International quoted the head of the US Navy's Hornet program as saying Boeing had a "potential follow-on order in Australia".
Australia Eyes Extra Warplanes
Aviation Week & Space Technology 09/17/2007
Author: David A. Fulghum
The Australian economy is booming while the U.S. dollar is shrinking, and that’s making sophisticated American strike and reconnaissance aircraft look more attractive.
The combination of budget surpluses and cut-rate prices for high technology may be parlayed into additional Australian defense spending. High priority is being assigned to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, F/A-18 Super Hornet family and advanced unmanned aircraft. In fact, a new Australian study suggests that the country should almost double its JSF buy in order to meet its stated defense requirements.
Although it’s still a politically sensitive issue, Australia is considering a second lot of 24 F/A-18 Super Hornets, among which defense officials would like to include 6-8 EA-18G Growler advanced electronic attack aircraft, say U.S. and Australian military officials. The Growler with the next round of software upgrades will begin to use data streams and sophisticated jamming to disable enemy air defenses and aid in sophisticated information operations such as tapping into enemy networks.
To speed the effort, an Australia/U.S. treaty on defense trade cooperation was signed Sept. 5. It will require additional definition during the next few months, however, before it can be ratified. But, the plan is to slash the need for, and time required by, layers of licensing. It also is designed to speed the transfer of U.S. equipment and technical data so maintenance and sustainment can be turned over to Australian companies. The F-35 program has a separate set of international business arrangements, but the new treaty could make even those agreements smoother by opening the door for foreign contractors earlier in the program, say U.S. aerospace industry officials.
The consideration of a larger Australian defense force is generating studies that provide insight into Australia’s military planning options for both offensive and defensive operations.
A new report by the Kokoda Foundation, a defense think tank in Canberra where the Defense Ministry is located, says the 70 F-35s that Australia is planning to buy are insufficient for the country’s needs. The analysis: “Australia’s Joint Strike Fighter Fleet: How Much Is Too Little?” says that if all the government requirements are met, the Royal Australian Air Force would have to field a force of 120 JSFs. The report was written by Air Vice Marshal (ret.) Peter Nicholson, former head of policy and plans (currently BAE Systems Australia’s director of government relations), and David Connery, a former Army air defense specialist. That figure would break down into five operational squadrons of 16 aircraft, a training squadron and spares for maintenance and attrition. The fighters would be supported by six airborne early warning and control aircraft and five multirole tanker-transports.
Scenarios (against which a variety of JSF force sizes were measured) involved: offshore deployments of a small joint task force versus a regional state that’s supported by a major global power; detecting and responding to illegal incursions and terrorism; operations as part of a U.S.-led coalition to restore order in an African nation; and the occupation of disputed islands by a foreign power just as other operations are getting underway.
Kokoda analysts, aided by military and government officials, concluded that three or four squadrons of F-35s were not enough to meet all the defensive and offensive needs. However, it also notes that five tankers wouldn’t be enough to support the larger F-35 force, so that the former would have to be expanded as well.
Pentagon officials who have met with Australia’s Defense Minister Brendan Nelson say there is no conflict between the Super Hornet buys and the JSF programs. In fact, they say Nelson contends that Australia is committed to buying 100 F-35s. The F/A-18 block II Super Hornets with advanced active, electronically scanned radars capable of finding small, stealthy objects are being bought to replace the 40-year-old F-111s by 2010 as precision-bombing, multispectral strike aircraft. The aircraft bought by the RAAF will be identical to those used by the U.S. Navy, which will give them network links to U.S. military forces.
“In the future, I can see Block 2 Super Hornets training at [NAS] Fallon with [RAAF] officers flying beside our aircrews and conducting carrier operations,” says a Pentagon official.
The study ends with the intriguing note that unmanned autonomous aircraft systems might substitute for one or more of the JSF squadrons. The option lists unmanned combat aircraft, cruise missiles and long-range standoff weapons launched from aircraft other than JSFs. Australian military officials have expressed interest in at least considering the purchase of 30 unmanned combat aircraft to support the JSF fleet. In the U.S., the JSF is expected to face competition from unmanned aircraft in the later phases of its production run. Boeing has been conducting carrier flight ops (not including landing, so far) using an F/A-18F as a surrogate Navy UCAS.