“Aardvarks are still flying? Kewl. Get some, aardvarks!”
Yeah, the Aussies bought some way back when, and have bought more since they went outta business with the USAF. They’ve also upgraded them and fixed some of the basic problems the -111 had in the first place. Had we done the same work, they’d still be flying here, probably. The Aussies call the -111 the “Pig” and the patch their pilots wear says “Pigs Must Fly”
We DID the work to upgrade our F-111s. It was called Pacer Strike for the F-111Fs and AMP for the EF-111s. Turned MX nightmare pieces of junk into very reliable jets - operating cost/hour just slightly higher than an F-15E.
The government could have kept all the EF-111s and a squadron of F-111Fs flying for the same cost as the 20 EA-6Bs - but the Navy was willing, and the USAF wasn’t.
One of the worst deals in the military - getting rid of the EF-111s and F-111Fs and taking 20 Prowlers instead.
After reading the RAID ON QUADAFFI(sp) I thought they were a poor conglomeration of airplane.