Classic Hornets ‘stretched beyond capability’ if JSF delayed

The danger of a capability gap in the RAAF fighter fleet is growing, with fears of fresh delays in the troubled F-35 JSF.

There are fears the RAAF’s F/A-18 Classic Hornets will be flying beyond their effective life expectancy.

The danger of a capability gap in Australia’s fighter fleet is growing, with fears of fresh delays in the troubled F-35 joint strike fighter as the RAAF’s Classic F/A-18 Hornets are due to retire.

A damning report last week on the progress of the F-35, by the Pentagon’s top weapons tester, has fuelled concern that delivery schedules for the new fighter could be delayed once again.

Any further delay in the delivery of the 72 Australian F-35s would create an acute problem for the RAAF, which would be forced to keep its 71 Classic F/A-18 Hornets flying beyond their effective life expectancy.

Former RAAF group captain Peter Layton warned yesterday that the RAAF could no longer extend the Classic Hornet’s life beyond its current retirement date of 2022 without the fighter becoming “operationally obsolescent’’.

The same issue haunted the F-111 strike fighter, which was kept in service a decade after it had become­ too obsolescent to be sent into battle.

The Pentagon report concluded that the F-35 still had a “substantial list of deficiencies in performance (that) will only lengthen … as testing continues”. It said there were still “significant discoveries requiring correction before F-35s are used in combat”.

The Washington Post said the Pentagon report raised fresh questions about the F-35’s “ability to meet its already slipped prod­uction schedule”.

The RAAF’s schedule for the F-35s coming to Australia has already­ been delayed two years due to continued developmental issues with the fifth-generation stealth fighter, which will form the bulk of the future US air force. Australia has committed $12.4 billion to buy 72 F-35s, with the first 14 due to achieve initial operating capability in December 2020 and the others due for delivery in 2023.

To prevent a capability gap in the face of delays to the F-35 project, the RAAF has already extende­d the life of its Classic Hornets by seven years from last year to 2022, forcing it to spend an extra $50 million a year to maintain the ageing fleet.

“The latest Pentagon report now suggests more F-35 program delays are possible, given software issues and problems with hot weather operation,” said Dr Layton­, now a visiting fellow at the Griffith Asia Institute­ of Griffith University.

“Already more than 25 years old, some ageing Classic Hornet aircraft could be forced to remain in service past 2022.

“In the next few years, an air combat capability gap could poten­tially develop where the old Classic Hornets become operationally obsolescent when benchmarked against the more modern, new air combat fighters of other Asia-Pacific air forces.”

The impact of any gap in air combat capability in the early 2020s will be reduced by the decision­ by former defence minister Brendan Nelson in 2006 to purchas­e two squadrons of F/A-18 Super Hornets to help fill any breach caused by the F-35 delay.

Australia has since ordered a squadron of a specialised electronic warfare version of the Super Hornet, known as the EA-18G Growler, to arrive next year. But Dr Layton said the difference­s between the RAAF’s original plans to transition its fighter fleet and those of today were “stark”.

“When Australia first committed to the F-35, the RAAF had some 100 fast jets as good as any in the Asia-Pacific region,’’ he said. “In the next few years this looks set to drop to only 36 fast jets, including the Gillard government’s purchase of 12 Growler aircraft derive­d from the Super Hornet.”

The Classic Hornet fleet, which dates from the mid-1980s, has undergone a series of structural refurbishment and avionic update programs since 2003.

A 2012 Australian National Audit Office audit report into the sustainment of the Classic Hornets, written when the fleet was due to be retired in 2020 rather than 2022, warned there were “wide-ranging risks inherent’’ in the management of the ageing fleet.

It found that the costs of maintaining the fleet were rising sharply with sustainment costs, which were averaging $118m a year in the 2000s, now trending towards $170m a year.

It said the Classic Hornet fleet was “accruing fatigue stress” at a rate which would require careful and continual management.