More Super Hornets for RAAF set to arrive in July(Update)

RAAF is planning to transit six more F/A-18F Super Hornets from the United States to RAAF Amberley in early July, 2010.

The Minister for Defence of Australia, Senator John Faulkner, said a detachment of RAAF aircrew and maintenance personnel from No 1 Squadron is currently conducting work-ups with the brand new aircraft at Naval Air Station Lemoore in California.

"The detachment is completing comprehensive flight testing which includes up to 96 hours of test and evaluation flying and two weeks of Electronic Warfare flight trials from Lemoore," Senator Faulkner was quoted as saying in a news release by the Australian Department of Defence.

The first five Super Hornets were welcomed at RAAF Amberley on 26 March this year. Since then, they have been conducting familiarisation training in Queensland.

"When these jets arrive shortly, close to half of Australia’s twenty four Super Hornets will be based at Amberley, and Defence will be working toward the next milestone of achieving Initial Operating Capability by the end of 2010," Senator Faulkner added, according to the release.

By the end of 2011, all twenty four of Australia’s Super Hornets are scheduled to be in Amberley.

The SuperBug is a great plane. It is just that I've always believed war, when it has to be fought, should be unfair ...the level of competitive dominance my side possesses should overwhelmingly overhang that of the other side. To that effect, the Raptor adds the 'unfairness quotient' of the equation, whereby there is no analogue (be it enemy air or enemy SAM/IADS). My only issue with the F/A-18 CD/EF (I guess EF since we are talking about the SuperBug) is that, as great a plane as it is, it already has analogues out there (some of which are better than the SuperBug). Thus, the SuperBug is no slouch ...but there are planes (e.g. the more advanced iterations of the Super Flanker, such as the SU-30MKI/MKK, and the introduced SU-35) that are more than a match for it; as well as the growing proliferation of advanced SAMS slaved to advanced integrated air defence systems (e.g. the S-300 and HQ-9) that are lethal to legacy airframes like the SuperBug. Things are not going to get better, with the cranking up of S-400 production, and talk of its successor the S-500. Advanced Flanker variants such as supercruising variants of the SU-35 are also in the works, and ofcourse the intricacies posed by introduction of near-5th to true-5th generation fighters like the Chinese JXX concept and the Russian/Indian PakFa.

The SuperBug is good enough for Australia (although the best airframe for them would have been the new variants of the F-15, such as the F-15K and F-15SG that South Korea and Singapore have, which would have sufficient range and capability to tackle the size of area and scope of threat that Australia would face ....particularly from a Chinese angle). However, the US needs something that will make anything the enemy may have on the air or on the ground largely ineffectual if not ineffective.

Only the Raptor can do that. Not the F-18, not the F-15, not the F-35. The F-22.

However some may feel that the US has such a huge lead in technology that it has a 'lead dividend' (to borrow on the so called 'peace dividend' terminology I so laughed at during my high school) which would enable it to cede some ground to its near-peers (e.g. China and Russia). To me that is not wise, but then again I am not the one making decisions in DC (I am not even within 10,000 miles of there).

However, I strongly believe warfare should be unfair.

The F-18 provides a fair fight. The Raptor does not. Therein lies the difference.

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