Corrections & additions: The first instance of "Williamtown" is obviously pronounced incorrectly (as Williamstown). The carrier version F-35C also sports a significantly enlarged, folding, wing compared to the other two main variants. In Australia the F-35 is operated by Squadron numbers 3, 75, 77, and No.2 Operational Conversion Unit (2OCU).
That was awesome-well done! When I was in the RAN, we used to go up against the Kiwi A4s, i.e the ex-RAN A4s. They were terrible! As soon as they were feet wet, they were as big as a 747 on radar, even with our crappy old SPS49 from the 1970s. When they attacked, they usually came in a two-ship, sometimes three, and in an AD10 they were a four-ship, which made them even easier to spot. Trying to attack from different points of the compass made no difference because as soon as they were over water we tracked them all the way regardless of their lame attempt at sea skimming at 20ft. We never ever got bounced by them. Not one single Kiwi ever get close enough to lob a 500lb bomb at us because they were always engaged at the SM1's maximum range, which was 26 nm. The Kiwis used to fly really low, thinking it would help them stay hidden, but it didn’t-especially over water. Sometimes they flew so low and close to the ship that you could look down into the cockpit as they zoomed past at 20 feet. That was always cool, especially when they were flying at around 400 knots, but in a real fight those poor Kiwis would have been dead long before they tried their rubbish tactics on us. The only advantage the A4s ever had against us was in a littoral environment, where our air search radar couldn’t pick them up in the ground clutter at low levels when they were terrain masking. They never ever did that and for some unknown reason every time they came out at us they came from exactly the same direction. It's as if that was their only airlane out of the airspace even though the entire EAXA is available? None of what they did was ever a surprise to us and the Kiwis completely lacked any imagination when it came to tactics. It was the same thing every time which was useless and predictable. I can remember thinking that they were so hopeless that they'd all be shot down in the first hour of any conflict despite their cool barrel roll air-to-air refuling skills. Luckily for us, they weren’t allowed to attack as we exited Sydney Harbour or while leaving Jervis Bay. If the RAAF and the Kiwis had really thought about it, they could have ended the exercise before it even started-but for some reason, that never happened, even though that was the most vulnerable time for us. If they'd practiced that, they would have nailed us every time. Maybe then we would have figured out how to stop it, but it was something we never trained for or to. You might be thinking, "That’s exactly what the Argentinians did in the Falklands," and you’d be right. As soon as the British ships were in that bay i.e San Carlos Water, the A4s ambushed them. If those captains had half a brain between them, they would have expected that to happen. In fact, I'd bet that they knew it would happen but in their overbearing arrogance, they thought they were immune to air attacks, which ended up costing them dearly. A classic case of know nothing officers pretending to play sailor while imagining that everything would be fine while they were busy fighting the last war. The dummies in charged of the RN and their arrogrance of the captains in command caused several British ships to be damaged or sunk, including HMS Ardent, HMS Antelope, and HMS Coventry, among others, leading to the deaths of 50 British service members. Hawkie was right to get rid of those planes-they were terrible and provided no strategic value to Australia at all. Great video-thanks for putting it together and sharing it with us all!
I really appreciate reading this from someone who has "been there" but it sounds like no tactics would have worked over water... in such a situation it maybe wasn't the Kiwis were stupid but rather, just had no choice. (?)
@@lllordllloyd The Kiwis just lacked imagination. We were always near the coast, and they could have used terrain masking to their advantage and ambushed us - but they didn't. They could have attacked us while we were at anchor or even while we were refueling at sea, but they didn't. They could have used the known commercial airlanes in the area to mask their ingress but thy didn't. There were literally dozens of different tactics they could have tried but they didn't do any of it. They went straight up the guts every time and were destroyed at max range every time! Looking back now, I think the real issue was that we never interacted with any Kiwi pilots-or even RAAF pilots, for that matter. In my time in the RAN I never met one or even saw one. It would have made more sense for those operational fighter pilots to spend a watch or two in the ops room to see what happens on the other side and how they can be shot down. I think that the reason they didn't comes down to officer arrogance. What RAAF fighter pilot would humble themselves and sink to the low levels of a combat systems operator - after all, what could a lowly able seaman know about fighter jets - other than how to shoot them down? Everything that I’m describing is happening again in Ukraine. You've seen the footage of Ukrainian FPV drone operators destroying Russian missile batteries of all types. The Ukrainians were the first to come up with FPV drone attacks to take out enemy air defenses. And still today, almost 3-years on the RU side haven't adapted. Their exquisite S400 and even S500 batteries have been destroyed by FPV drones as well as low and slow home made jerry rigged junk. Don't get me started on how they’ve completely neutralized the Russian Black Sea Fleet and even sunk their flagship-all without having a navy. There are plenty of people in the world with great ideas and imagination-unfortunately, none of them seemed to be in that Kiwi A4 squadron and none of them are in the RU military either, especially their navy!
@@PropertyEnvy I agree 100%. Having done Carrier work in the US Navy a long time ago, information sharing was crucial. Lower ranks had to learn to mix with higher ranks, and vice versa. It's one thing Australians did really well.
Great point on the Argentinian usage of the A4's. Their performance was massively underrated and underappreciated by analysts and historians after the war. A lot of people don't appreciate the skill of the pilots in that they managed to actually hit a large number of British ships with bombs, however because of the incompetence of the Argie ground crew in understanding how to correctly set the r-tarding mechanism and timing on the fuzes, these bombs simply didn't detonate and explode as anticipated. The war would have been over very quickly and easily won in the early days by Argentina if the bombs let loose from the A4's had actually exploded on all the ships that were hit during the Battle of San Carlos. Lady luck favoured the Brits during this campaign.
I served in HMAS Melbourne when we sailed to the states to pick them up along with the Trackers. The hanger was chockers with them and there was almost no room left on the flight deck bringing them back to Australia.
As a teenager I was on the last civilian tour of HMAS MELBOURNE II ( in Sydney Harbour) 😢 You forgot to mention the bun fight with the USA when she was scapped ( Australia left the catapult in tact..was steam driven and was tested by launching a Tank full of cement off the deck.) Even got a flight in a RAN westland Wessex. The A4's were a pilot's aircraft
I saw a RAAF Skyhawk in Kalamazoo Air museum it was around 2015 when was living in Michigan. Was nice to see it there, I still have the pictures of it.
Prior to the Invincible Class Carriers, the British Royal Navy were about to scrap their obselete carriers too, without replacement. Mindful of the virtues of the new Harrier Jet at the time, that potentially wouldn't require a catapult, British defence "tricked" the polititians into approving a "Helicopter Landing Dock ship", initially minus the revolutionary ski jump ramp. It worked. And then the Sea Harrier was developed. And the ski jump followed. Then the Falklands war happened. And the rest is history. Now Australia has Helicopter Landing Dock ships, with ski jump ramps, and there's the F-35B, and everyone keeps asking the same question.
There decks aren’t heat proofed enough and they can’t carry enough fuel for the jets. So there basically glorified version of HMAS Tobruk and choles for carrying the army but Juan Carlos the 1 uses harriers and f35s which the Canberras are directly based off
Thanks for a great video. I've an interest in Commonwealth forces so any Aussie stuff is always appreciated. Harriers Down Under? That's a tantalising "What if?" The Skyhawk's design philosophy still survives in aeroplanes like the Saab Griffen.
I saw the Kiwis use the bombing range at Cultana during the late 70's. Awesome to see and I got to see them on the ground close up when they were refueling. As a kid, I was gobsmacked! Loved the look of them ever since.
Awesome video! I learned quite a lot. Fantastic footage! Sad to see the end of naval aviation with the RAN. We know how it feels .... greetings from Canada.
I've seen these planes in the Air Force museum at Nowra NSW. Beautiful plane, I thought. I think the plaque said an Argentine Skyhawk also sunk a British warship in the Faklands war in the early 80s.
@lundsweden A-4s sank several British warships and damaged several more during the Falklands War. Had they had proper fuzes for their bombs they could have won.
The decision to scrap the RNZAF Strike Wing, was absolutely ludicrous. Our A-4's were top of the heap, and yet our P.M called them clapped out. I'm still gutted about that.
I think that comment came after a couple of them crashed during exercises with Australia over a short period of time. I remember the comment: "If the defense of our country rests on a dozen clapped out Skyhawks, then God help us." Pretty brutal to the men & women who flew & supported them.
@@RonLucock perhaps, but when she tried to justify grounding them, that was an absolute lie. Even the defense minister next to her was looking at the floor. Everyone knew that was disgustingly false.
@@WayneNiles01 Sorry for your loss dude. I understand that around the same time, the US was trying to sell you second-hand F-16's to replace them, but NZ was never interested. Is that right?
It’s a crime that our nation, an island continent, has had no Naval Air Wing since the Melbourne’s decommissioning. British reneged on Invincible. She performed well in Falklands conflict. We should have approached the United States Government to purchase or lease a carrier or two from the USA. Late WW2 or Korean surplus would have been fine. After all, the Sydney and Melbourne were both Royal Navy castoffs
Sorry the British did NOT renege on the Invincible, the Brits offered a brand new carrier for 100 million pounds, but the HAWKE government knocked it back and got rid of a carrier.
I worked in the same hanger as VC 724. Their fly bys were always super tight. I worked in the RAAF after and theirs were good but not at that level. I recall seeing two A4 with twisted up elevators after they narrowly missed each other attacking the same ship from opposite sides. 😂
𝕊𝕔𝕠𝕠𝕥𝕖𝕣 💘 I loved it ever since seeing it in Top Gun. Once I found out we used to fly them I was in heaven! I tried visiting The FAA Museum at HMAS Albatross, but they were closed 🥹 it was a 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨 drive from Melbourne, too! I'm hoping to go back and see the last RAN Skyhawk one day, before I'm too old and frail 🙏
One of the worst decisions made to not take up a new carrier and fixed wing sqns. Upgrade the Canberra class LHD to carry F35b's with containerised armoured fuel and weapons storage and the new British exhaust resistant deck coating.
Whilst I wholeheartedly agree that it was massive loss of capability & a huge missed opportunity by the Labor Government to not immediately replace the Melbourne with the Invincible class in the early 80s. I do believe the cost of enhancing the Canberra class to deploy a 5th Gen fixed wing capability would be far too cost prohibitive and it would come at the expense of AUKUS & a future enhanced Destroyer. These capabilities being far more effective in denying & deterring a higher tier opponent in our region. Not to mention the Canberra class is unreliable (as evident by the amount of time both ships remain in port) & is already well into its service life.
Can be done reasonably easily especially if the pilots and maintenance was done by RAAF. I personally think it is short sighted and political on why it is not done. Financially it able to be done if Labour stops wasting the money on stupid things and managed things properly. Mind you the Libs are no better.
@@russellwaterson3304libs have proven to be much worse. Just look at the Collins class, Armidale class and Anzac class replacement programmes respectively. Very messy and now for the Collins Class replacement very expensive.
And then lose the work that has been done in recent years to transform 2RAR into the core of a littoral movement force. We will also be essentially back to the situation when Timor blew up having to rush into service aomething akin to HMAS Jervis Bay because we once again have bugger all troop lift capacity. Making that choice to achieve what because the ships won't have the capacity to maintain sustained flight operations anyway. We don't even currently have fleet replenishment ships to attempt to maintain operations.
@@mylesdobinson1534 As an Australian Air Force Cadet I got to have a conversation with the man who ordered the RAAF’s F-35A’s. When I brought this up with him he said that it was unlikely that they would upgrade Australia’s LHD’s because: 1 the United States has already got orders for F-35s from many other countries, so it would take a lot of time to produce and deliver, 2. each LHD would only be able to carry 6 F35Bs which would mean if engaging in direct dogfighting with an opposing enemy fleet, chances are both LHDs would have to be present to put the odds in Australian favour, limiting Australian naval reach, 3 the cost to outfit the LHDs with proper equipment, gear, ship modifications and hiring crew would cost a lot of funds (especially if it’s only for 12 fighter craft across 2 carriers) and 4, Australia’s LHDs are not primarily used for combat missions but find themselves in humanitarian support such as floods and bushfires, outfitting them with aircraft would take away that ability for them to be used for humanitarian missions as it would greatly limit how many Sea Hawks and Chinooks that can land and be repaired on board. However in the event of war with an adversary like China, there is a chance these carriers would be fitted with the proper equipment for fighter aircraft.
Now we have the LCH & f-35 but we didn't get the right versions of either to be able to use them together as a sort of "littoral zone aircraft carrier".
The designer out did himself with the Skyhawk. I remember they gave him limited scope to build a jet attacker/carrier plane and he came back at them with all the power and performance they wanted and more in a plane half the size.
Not sure the Skyhawk ever looked better than in Australian livery. The G model was similar to the A-4F "Super Fox" in performance, having a high T:W ratio and low wing loading due to low weight. It could be a bear in a close-in fight, especially with Aussie pilots.
The New Zealand A4K was a good scooter as well. The 50th anniversary of the RNZAF A4K painted in the gold looked fantastic, but was only the one, and only for a fue months
We used to have the fleet air Arm those a4 were at nas Nowra air cover for the fleet now we have two carriers with no aircraft it would be sensible to buy f35b for these carriers one on the east coast one on the west coast fleet cover also based at nas Nowra.
Awesome vid, interesting only Australia n Brazil had successful career with A4 Skyhawk as carriers operations, surprised Canada didn't operate them n unfortunately Argentina had embargo in 75. In end it was bad decision to end A4 Skyhawk fleet as it wasn't just Falkland war with UK carrier was been offered but US Navy offered their non nuclear carriers for RAN to buy.
Sorry you didn't like the music - was trying to give it a vibe from the time. I thought the balance of music under the VO was OK, but I'm open to correction.
add a rock to it, it kept flying, add a brick to it, it kept flying. It did not matter what they add to the little A-4, it just kept flying. Nice plane the A-4.
Yeap.. I don’t know how else to say it. Amazing times, amazing aircraft. Politicians killed it for the Fleet Air Arm. . All gone now. (Ex Navy Seahawk Captain).
What would you want say a force of two carriers (forget about the fact you need more than two to have one available for operations at any one time)? Besides that the RAN doesn't have the capacity to support and protect them and maintain it's other responsibilities. Just look at the mess the RN is in with trying to provide a carrier task force to government as an operational choice.
@@AndrewinAus australia will never operate carriers again I feel, the only option would be a hybrid cruiser carrier with a large VLS battery along with 6-8 VSTOL aircraft. I’ve seen a few proposals starting in the 1970’s with the last I seen was one in 1987/88 for a 25,000 ton ship carrying F/A-18A Hornets along with VLS, a five inch gun and two Mk15 CIWS.
@@lindsaybaker9480 I agree we won't be getting into the carrier game again. There is no reason for it. The US has that part of the naval equation covered. Definitely better things for us to spend our money on at this point. 6 to 8 VSTOL aircraft I don't think would justify the cost given what you could achieve. At best 2 aircraft in the air at any one time. I think the direction is clear for the ADF with autonomous vehicles Ghost Bat, Ghost Shark and the BAE Systems ATLAS vehicle should we chose to go down that path as well. Unmanned systems and long range strike as well as littoral movement with army (becoming in a way a marine force) seems to be where we are headed.
Corrections & additions: The first instance of "Williamtown" is obviously pronounced incorrectly (as Williamstown). The carrier version F-35C also sports a significantly enlarged, folding, wing compared to the other two main variants. In Australia the F-35 is operated by Squadron numbers 3, 75, 77, and No.2 Operational Conversion Unit (2OCU).
That was awesome-well done! When I was in the RAN, we used to go up against the Kiwi A4s, i.e the ex-RAN A4s. They were terrible! As soon as they were feet wet, they were as big as a 747 on radar, even with our crappy old SPS49 from the 1970s. When they attacked, they usually came in a two-ship, sometimes three, and in an AD10 they were a four-ship, which made them even easier to spot. Trying to attack from different points of the compass made no difference because as soon as they were over water we tracked them all the way regardless of their lame attempt at sea skimming at 20ft.
We never ever got bounced by them. Not one single Kiwi ever get close enough to lob a 500lb bomb at us because they were always engaged at the SM1's maximum range, which was 26 nm. The Kiwis used to fly really low, thinking it would help them stay hidden, but it didn’t-especially over water. Sometimes they flew so low and close to the ship that you could look down into the cockpit as they zoomed past at 20 feet. That was always cool, especially when they were flying at around 400 knots, but in a real fight those poor Kiwis would have been dead long before they tried their rubbish tactics on us.
The only advantage the A4s ever had against us was in a littoral environment, where our air search radar couldn’t pick them up in the ground clutter at low levels when they were terrain masking. They never ever did that and for some unknown reason every time they came out at us they came from exactly the same direction. It's as if that was their only airlane out of the airspace even though the entire EAXA is available? None of what they did was ever a surprise to us and the Kiwis completely lacked any imagination when it came to tactics. It was the same thing every time which was useless and predictable. I can remember thinking that they were so hopeless that they'd all be shot down in the first hour of any conflict despite their cool barrel roll air-to-air refuling skills.
Luckily for us, they weren’t allowed to attack as we exited Sydney Harbour or while leaving Jervis Bay. If the RAAF and the Kiwis had really thought about it, they could have ended the exercise before it even started-but for some reason, that never happened, even though that was the most vulnerable time for us. If they'd practiced that, they would have nailed us every time. Maybe then we would have figured out how to stop it, but it was something we never trained for or to.
You might be thinking, "That’s exactly what the Argentinians did in the Falklands," and you’d be right. As soon as the British ships were in that bay i.e San Carlos Water, the A4s ambushed them. If those captains had half a brain between them, they would have expected that to happen. In fact, I'd bet that they knew it would happen but in their overbearing arrogance, they thought they were immune to air attacks, which ended up costing them dearly. A classic case of know nothing officers pretending to play sailor while imagining that everything would be fine while they were busy fighting the last war.
The dummies in charged of the RN and their arrogrance of the captains in command caused several British ships to be damaged or sunk, including HMS Ardent, HMS Antelope, and HMS Coventry, among others, leading to the deaths of 50 British service members.
Hawkie was right to get rid of those planes-they were terrible and provided no strategic value to Australia at all.
Great video-thanks for putting it together and sharing it with us all!
I really appreciate reading this from someone who has "been there" but it sounds like no tactics would have worked over water... in such a situation it maybe wasn't the Kiwis were stupid but rather, just had no choice. (?)
@@lllordllloyd The Kiwis just lacked imagination. We were always near the coast, and they could have used terrain masking to their advantage and ambushed us - but they didn't. They could have attacked us while we were at anchor or even while we were refueling at sea, but they didn't. They could have used the known commercial airlanes in the area to mask their ingress but thy didn't. There were literally dozens of different tactics they could have tried but they didn't do any of it. They went straight up the guts every time and were destroyed at max range every time!
Looking back now, I think the real issue was that we never interacted with any Kiwi pilots-or even RAAF pilots, for that matter. In my time in the RAN I never met one or even saw one. It would have made more sense for those operational fighter pilots to spend a watch or two in the ops room to see what happens on the other side and how they can be shot down. I think that the reason they didn't comes down to officer arrogance. What RAAF fighter pilot would humble themselves and sink to the low levels of a combat systems operator - after all, what could a lowly able seaman know about fighter jets - other than how to shoot them down?
Everything that I’m describing is happening again in Ukraine. You've seen the footage of Ukrainian FPV drone operators destroying Russian missile batteries of all types. The Ukrainians were the first to come up with FPV drone attacks to take out enemy air defenses. And still today, almost 3-years on the RU side haven't adapted. Their exquisite S400 and even S500 batteries have been destroyed by FPV drones as well as low and slow home made jerry rigged junk.
Don't get me started on how they’ve completely neutralized the Russian Black Sea Fleet and even sunk their flagship-all without having a navy. There are plenty of people in the world with great ideas and imagination-unfortunately, none of them seemed to be in that Kiwi A4 squadron and none of them are in the RU military either, especially their navy!
@@PropertyEnvy I agree 100%. Having done Carrier work in the US Navy a long time ago, information sharing was crucial. Lower ranks had to learn to mix with higher ranks, and vice versa. It's one thing Australians did really well.
I grew up holidaying in South Durras, so I loved those Kiwi A-4's! 😂
Great point on the Argentinian usage of the A4's. Their performance was massively underrated and underappreciated by analysts and historians after the war. A lot of people don't appreciate the skill of the pilots in that they managed to actually hit a large number of British ships with bombs, however because of the incompetence of the Argie ground crew in understanding how to correctly set the r-tarding mechanism and timing on the fuzes, these bombs simply didn't detonate and explode as anticipated. The war would have been over very quickly and easily won in the early days by Argentina if the bombs let loose from the A4's had actually exploded on all the ships that were hit during the Battle of San Carlos. Lady luck favoured the Brits during this campaign.
I served in HMAS Melbourne when we sailed to the states to pick them up along with the Trackers. The hanger was chockers with them and there was almost no room left on the flight deck bringing them back to Australia.
I had forgotten Australia operated the A-4. Just found the channel. Looking forward to watching other videos.
As a teenager I was on the last civilian tour of HMAS MELBOURNE II ( in Sydney Harbour) 😢 You forgot to mention the bun fight with the USA when she was scapped ( Australia left the catapult in tact..was steam driven and was tested by launching a Tank full of cement off the deck.) Even got a flight in a RAN westland Wessex. The A4's were a pilot's aircraft
There is something so aesthetically pleasing about the geometry of the Sky Hawke. It is what the classic jet should look like.
Thank you for another Australian footage!
It was great and exciting serving aboard Melbourne on her flightdeck. Exciting times.
I saw a RAAF Skyhawk in Kalamazoo Air museum it was around 2015 when was living in Michigan. Was nice to see it there, I still have the pictures of it.
Not RAAF. RAN.( Royal Australian Navy)
Might be a rebuilt A4-B donated by Bob Lutz..?
You guys are Outstanding operating American Built Aircraft
Prior to the Invincible Class Carriers, the British Royal Navy were about to scrap their obselete carriers too, without replacement. Mindful of the virtues of the new Harrier Jet at the time, that potentially wouldn't require a catapult, British defence "tricked" the polititians into approving a "Helicopter Landing Dock ship", initially minus the revolutionary ski jump ramp. It worked. And then the Sea Harrier was developed. And the ski jump followed. Then the Falklands war happened. And the rest is history. Now Australia has Helicopter Landing Dock ships, with ski jump ramps, and there's the F-35B, and everyone keeps asking the same question.
There decks aren’t heat proofed enough and they can’t carry enough fuel for the jets. So there basically glorified version of HMAS Tobruk and choles for carrying the army but Juan Carlos the 1 uses harriers and f35s which the Canberras are directly based off
Thanks for a great video. I've an interest in Commonwealth forces so any Aussie stuff is always appreciated. Harriers Down Under? That's a tantalising "What if?" The Skyhawk's design philosophy still survives in aeroplanes like the Saab Griffen.
The Skyhawk is such an amazing aircraft and looks great with the Aussie roundel. Also, will there be a Tracker video in the future!
I saw the Kiwis use the bombing range at Cultana during the late 70's. Awesome to see and I got to see them on the ground close up when they were refueling. As a kid, I was gobsmacked! Loved the look of them ever since.
Awesome video! I learned quite a lot. Fantastic footage! Sad to see the end of naval aviation with the RAN. We know how it feels .... greetings from Canada.
I've seen these planes in the Air Force museum at Nowra NSW. Beautiful plane, I thought. I think the plaque said an Argentine Skyhawk also sunk a British warship in the Faklands war in the early 80s.
@lundsweden A-4s sank several British warships and damaged several more during the Falklands War. Had they had proper fuzes for their bombs they could have won.
Awesome vid! Looking forward to the next one.
The decision to scrap the RNZAF Strike Wing, was absolutely ludicrous. Our A-4's were top of the heap, and yet our P.M called them clapped out. I'm still gutted about that.
Labor will do anything to weaken Australia.
@@paddlesmcbean2366 He's referring to Helen Clarke, the former NZ PM.
I think that comment came after a couple of them crashed during exercises with Australia over a short period of time. I remember the comment: "If the defense of our country rests on a dozen clapped out Skyhawks, then God help us." Pretty brutal to the men & women who flew & supported them.
@@RonLucock perhaps, but when she tried to justify grounding them, that was an absolute lie. Even the defense minister next to her was looking at the floor. Everyone knew that was disgustingly false.
@@WayneNiles01 Sorry for your loss dude. I understand that around the same time, the US was trying to sell you second-hand F-16's to replace them, but NZ was never interested. Is that right?
It’s a crime that our nation, an island continent, has had no Naval Air Wing since the Melbourne’s decommissioning. British reneged on Invincible. She performed well in Falklands conflict. We should have approached the United States Government to purchase or lease a carrier or two from the USA. Late WW2 or Korean surplus would have been fine. After all, the Sydney and Melbourne were both Royal Navy castoffs
Sorry the British did NOT renege on the Invincible, the Brits offered a brand new carrier for 100 million pounds, but the HAWKE government knocked it back and got rid of a carrier.
Beautiful video!
I worked in the same hanger as VC 724. Their fly bys were always super tight. I worked in the RAAF after and theirs were good but not at that level. I recall seeing two A4 with twisted up elevators after they narrowly missed each other attacking the same ship from opposite sides. 😂
𝕊𝕔𝕠𝕠𝕥𝕖𝕣 💘 I loved it ever since seeing it in Top Gun. Once I found out we used to fly them I was in heaven! I tried visiting The FAA Museum at HMAS Albatross, but they were closed 🥹 it was a 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨 drive from Melbourne, too! I'm hoping to go back and see the last RAN Skyhawk one day, before I'm too old and frail 🙏
Awesome bird. Working on the Melbourne with seakings and watching the simplicity of the A4 in maintenance compared with the seaking caused envy.
Great video but calm the music right down.
I totally agree, the music selections were too loud and distracting.
The stupid music wrecked it.
One of the worst decisions made to not take up a new carrier and fixed wing sqns. Upgrade the Canberra class LHD to carry F35b's with containerised armoured fuel and weapons storage and the new British exhaust resistant deck coating.
Whilst I wholeheartedly agree that it was massive loss of capability & a huge missed opportunity by the Labor Government to not immediately replace the Melbourne with the Invincible class in the early 80s. I do believe the cost of enhancing the Canberra class to deploy a 5th Gen fixed wing capability would be far too cost prohibitive and it would come at the expense of AUKUS & a future enhanced Destroyer. These capabilities being far more effective in denying & deterring a higher tier opponent in our region. Not to mention the Canberra class is unreliable (as evident by the amount of time both ships remain in port) & is already well into its service life.
Can be done reasonably easily especially if the pilots and maintenance was done by RAAF. I personally think it is short sighted and political on why it is not done. Financially it able to be done if Labour stops wasting the money on stupid things and managed things properly. Mind you the Libs are no better.
@@russellwaterson3304libs have proven to be much worse. Just look at the Collins class, Armidale class and Anzac class replacement programmes respectively. Very messy and now for the Collins Class replacement very expensive.
And then lose the work that has been done in recent years to transform 2RAR into the core of a littoral movement force. We will also be essentially back to the situation when Timor blew up having to rush into service aomething akin to HMAS Jervis Bay because we once again have bugger all troop lift capacity. Making that choice to achieve what because the ships won't have the capacity to maintain sustained flight operations anyway. We don't even currently have fleet replenishment ships to attempt to maintain operations.
@@mylesdobinson1534 As an Australian Air Force Cadet I got to have a conversation with the man who ordered the RAAF’s F-35A’s. When I brought this up with him he said that it was unlikely that they would upgrade Australia’s LHD’s because: 1 the United States has already got orders for F-35s from many other countries, so it would take a lot of time to produce and deliver, 2. each LHD would only be able to carry 6 F35Bs which would mean if engaging in direct dogfighting with an opposing enemy fleet, chances are both LHDs would have to be present to put the odds in Australian favour, limiting Australian naval reach, 3 the cost to outfit the LHDs with proper equipment, gear, ship modifications and hiring crew would cost a lot of funds (especially if it’s only for 12 fighter craft across 2 carriers) and 4, Australia’s LHDs are not primarily used for combat missions but find themselves in humanitarian support such as floods and bushfires, outfitting them with aircraft would take away that ability for them to be used for humanitarian missions as it would greatly limit how many Sea Hawks and Chinooks that can land and be repaired on board. However in the event of war with an adversary like China, there is a chance these carriers would be fitted with the proper equipment for fighter aircraft.
Now we have the LCH & f-35 but we didn't get the right versions of either to be able to use them together as a sort of "littoral zone aircraft carrier".
The designer out did himself with the Skyhawk. I remember they gave him limited scope to build a jet attacker/carrier plane and he came back at them with all the power and performance they wanted and more in a plane half the size.
Fun fact. The A4 main wing was about the same size as the elevator on an F14 Tomcat.
Not sure the Skyhawk ever looked better than in Australian livery.
The G model was similar to the A-4F "Super Fox" in performance, having a high T:W ratio and low wing loading due to low weight. It could be a bear in a close-in fight, especially with Aussie pilots.
The New Zealand A4K was a good scooter as well. The 50th anniversary of the RNZAF A4K painted in the gold looked fantastic, but was only the one, and only for a fue months
This is the cutest military jet ever...I like him :)
We used to have the fleet air Arm those a4 were at nas Nowra air cover for the fleet now we have two carriers with no aircraft it would be sensible to buy f35b for these carriers one on the east coast one on the west coast fleet cover also based at nas Nowra.
The music is too loud and distracting
Awesome vid, interesting only Australia n Brazil had successful career with A4 Skyhawk as carriers operations, surprised Canada didn't operate them n unfortunately Argentina had embargo in 75. In end it was bad decision to end A4 Skyhawk fleet as it wasn't just Falkland war with UK carrier was been offered but US Navy offered their non nuclear carriers for RAN to buy.
Good old Bob Hawke....depleting our ADF. Now we have Aircraft capable Warships, but no aircraft.
I like the content, but the music, specially in this volume, is not necessary
Sorry you didn't like the music - was trying to give it a vibe from the time. I thought the balance of music under the VO was OK, but I'm open to correction.
add a rock to it, it kept flying, add a brick to it, it kept flying. It did not matter what they add to the little A-4, it just kept flying. Nice plane the A-4.
Ah yeah....subic Bay. Did they on Hobart quite a few years ago
F-35B for the LHDs!
Thank you for this short video.
Watched the A-4s dog fighting around the cliffs north west of Taree NSW, 1983ish.
Beautiful small planes darting around just over the tree tops.
Yep, I remember well the triple one's training over our farm in Northern Vic. Knock off early and watch the airshow.
70 years of A-4 Skyhawk in 2024.
Nobody forgets the " scooter "
Yeap.. I don’t know how else to say it. Amazing times, amazing aircraft. Politicians killed it for the Fleet Air Arm. . All gone now. (Ex Navy Seahawk Captain).
An aircraft carrier is a great big target. When you are on a limited budget, there’s better stuff to spend on
Yeap.. I don’t know how else to say it. Amazing times, amazing aircraft. Politicians killed it. . All gone now. (Ex Navy Seahawk Captain).
Turn down the music please. Ruined the watching experience
Turn music off off.
👍👍👍
HUGE mistake selling the jets to New Zealand
what fell into the ocean @ 5:54
The catapult cable - once the A4 was airborne, the cable fell into the ocean (a one use, throw away item!)
Yeap.. I don’t know how else to say it. Amazing times, amazing aircraft. Politicians killed it. . All gone now. (Ex Seahawk Captain).
RAHHHHHHH JERVIS BAY AND NOWRA MENTIONED
I think history has proved the decision right.
Please lose the bloody music!!!!!
Great content but the music is an absolutely amateurish addition.
The scooter.
Both political parties have never acted to reverse this decision and even the navy itself has declared carriers though shall not say its name.
What would you want say a force of two carriers (forget about the fact you need more than two to have one available for operations at any one time)? Besides that the RAN doesn't have the capacity to support and protect them and maintain it's other responsibilities. Just look at the mess the RN is in with trying to provide a carrier task force to government as an operational choice.
@@AndrewinAus australia will never operate carriers again I feel, the only option would be a hybrid cruiser carrier with a large VLS battery along with 6-8 VSTOL aircraft. I’ve seen a few proposals starting in the 1970’s with the last I seen was one in 1987/88 for a 25,000 ton ship carrying F/A-18A Hornets along with VLS, a five inch gun and two Mk15 CIWS.
@@lindsaybaker9480 I agree we won't be getting into the carrier game again. There is no reason for it. The US has that part of the naval equation covered. Definitely better things for us to spend our money on at this point. 6 to 8 VSTOL aircraft I don't think would justify the cost given what you could achieve. At best 2 aircraft in the air at any one time.
I think the direction is clear for the ADF with autonomous vehicles Ghost Bat, Ghost Shark and the BAE Systems ATLAS vehicle should we chose to go down that path as well. Unmanned systems and long range strike as well as littoral movement with army (becoming in a way a marine force) seems to be where we are headed.
Yeah, we don’t need a carrier based fleet air arm. I mean it’s not like we’re a major island surrounded by potential hostile or anything!!! 🙄
shood have keep are fixs wing not relly a fan of boob horck
That was good!
Ever since the 1980s Australia has struggled to do or operate anything mildly complicated. Its been down hill ever since
The F35 and P8 boys will be saddened by your comment.
Typical Labor Government
Yawn....
Yet another ALP foul up.
The ALP always treats the ADF like an ATM to pay for their useless crap. Nothing changes
RAAF propoganda, Y/N ?
Yeap.. I don’t know how else to say it. Amazing times, amazing aircraft. Politicians killed it. . All gone now. (Ex Seahawk Captain).