Defence plan to scrap F-111s

On Wed, 6 Aug 2003 17:39:41 +1000, "Brash"
wrote:

"JD" wrote in message
. com...
(Defender in Tas) wrote in message
.com...
[...]

I personally like Brash's suggestion of the F-15s. Lease them of the
Yanks with a clause that states if the JSF is late, we keep the F-15s
for free until the JSF turns up. Fat chance but. Expensive purchase of
munitions to begin with, unless what we've got in store are
compatible?

I'm no expert on air weapons, but I'm fairly sure that since every thing is
digitised these days its only a matter of software changes to use different
ordnance.

Unfortunately, this is not the case, and software changes are a much
bigger deal than you might expect.

Clearing ordnance for drop is quite a long and involved process that
takes quite a time. Unless you are willing to lose aircraft and
aircrew finding out the hard way.

In a war, you might just have to do that.

EG, IIRC, using small bombs in WWII RAAF Bostons, the aerodynamics
interactions between these small bombs was discovered by blowing up
several aircraft when they dropped their bombs on the enemy.

Our current stocks of F111 weapons are most probably compatible
with the F15E (or K).

Concur, or little trouble at any rate. Some of our munitions have not
been directly cleared for use on those aircraft, but US license made
versions have been, so unless they are significantly different, it
should not be a problem.


....

cheers,

Paul Saccani,
Perth,
Western Australia


old turkish proverb: 'He who tells the truth gets chased out of nine villages'