L'acrobat wrote:
I hate to disagree, but it is my understanding that F-111s were tasked to
strike Indonesian C3I targets if the E.Timor op had been seriously
opposed
by the Indon Military.

There were reports of this but we won't know officially until 2029 when
the papers are released by the National Archives. In a speech in 2000,
General Cosgrove said that we came "dangerously close" to a shooting war
with Indonesia but he didn't elaborate. Subsequent media reports were
hard to either prove or disprove.

There was speculation that the TNI, which was totally opposed to giving
up East Timor, might not behave and it was not inconceivable that
elements might resist the INTERFET deployment, and perhaps even stage a
coup.

F-111s and extra F/A-18s were forward deployed to Tindal in the lead up
to the INTERFET deployment (plenty of TV footage at the time). Indonesia
claimed that RF-111s conducted overflights of East Timor and made a very
public threat to shoot down any "spy planes" entering Indonesian
airspace. F/A-18s started carrying white missiles the day that threat
was made.

It is known that Indonesian F-16s, F-5s and A-4s were airborne the night
the ships sailed from Darwin, and reportedly made probing moves towards
the group. There were also some missile boats out of Kupang. The Type
209 subs was in the Timor Sea (but there were also two Collins subs
around, and RAAF and RNZAF Orions, so they weren't a real problem).

What's not known is exactly how close we came. One media report later
said that F-111s were "bombed up" ready to "knock out Indonesian
communications as far back as TNI headquarters on the outskirts of
Jakarta if necessary". Another report said that the commander of the
naval taskforce came within less than a minute of giving the order to
fire on Indonesia aircraft. How much of this is fact won't be known
until 2029.

It's not difficult to work out that if the TNI had gone off the rails
then things could have got very ugly very quickly. While INTERFET wasn't
militarily or politically in a position to make an opposed landing, the
aircraft in theatre would at least have been in a position to cover the
taskforce as it retreated to Darwin.

Cheers
David