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Australia’s decision to acquire the F-111 wasn’t driven by prestige—it was born from necessity. We explore the strategic realities that shaped one of the RAAF’s most important procurement decisions. With the rise of Cold War tensions in Southeast Asia and Indonesia’s growing military capability, we needed a long-range strike aircraft capable of defending Australia’s vast northern approaches. The F-111 became the only aircraft capable of meeting the RAAF’s demanding requirements. The legendary “Pig” ultimately became Australia’s most effective area-denial weapon for more than three decades.
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Some original footage and recreated scenes (using simulators like DCS and War Thunder) may not be 100% accurate to the events depicted but have been used for illustrative and dramatic purposes where archival footage was unavailable or restricted by copyright. We aim to remain as historically accurate as possible given the available resources. Our documentaries are researched, written, fact-checked and edited by our production team. Narration is performed by a combination of human presenters and Charles, our signature digital narrator. Charles reads scripts written entirely by our team and is used to provide a consistent narration style across our documentaries.
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This video may contain copyrighted material used under the “fair dealing” provisions (ss 40/103C, ss 41/103A, ss 42/103B) of the Australian Copyright Act for purposes of research, study, criticism, review, and news reporting.
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About Us:
We are three aviation enthusiasts who create documentaries, interviews, and video essays focused on Australian and international military aviation history. Our channel explores the stories of military aircraft, fighter pilots, air battles, and the evolution of air power from WWI to today. We do our own research but are not experts in any particular area, so corrections and suggestions are welcome.
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Great video, nailed the key difference with the way the F-111 was (and still is) viewed by the Australian vs. the USA public/military establishment – its role made immense sense to our unique needs, but not so much the US military's.
Side note* there is only one 'u' in 'nuclear'. The mispronunciation "nucular" is infuriating, like nails down a chalkboard😅 No atom has a nuculeus, I don't know who started this awful mispronunciation but when I find them I'm going to go nuclear on them🤣
My favorite jet ever
An absolute armour killing machine 1500+ in the gulf..
Also known as the Cadillac of the air super comfortable side-by-side seater.
I was sitting in my classroom in Brisbane in 1970-something, idly gazing out of the window at 4 tiny dots in the eastern sky. The dots got bigger and bigger then shot over us. My teacher ran to the door and said, "Those are the new Air Force jets arriving." I have never forgotten the moment.
So why the fk did they buy the f35 flying lemon with only one engine
Actually, in retrospect, it turned out we didn’t. AFAIK, they saw no more combat as the Oberon Class & Collins Class subs & no doubt the AUKUS class too…..zilch. Just toys for the boys at the cost of of everyone else.
Just don't tell China that We still have them wrapped up and Ready. Boom Booom.. at Mk3
We still need something ike, this not the mediocre we have and are offered.
We S T I L L N E E D I T !
Unfortunately the procurement and the first few years were such an expensive fiasco that Australia had to lease F-4s to cover the capability gap and commit an extra Battalion of infantry to Vietnam to keep the US on side.
Later the role could have been filled by cruise missiles far more cheaply.
arguably there was a brief period in the middle of the F-111s Australian service when it was effective.
It was an incredible platform, it did what was needed, in it's time, but it's time was well and truly over. Can't believe people still cry about it. Kopp and Goon are still in therapy about it !
My Dad, grandfather, and great-grandfather all flew Navy attack. As a small child, I remember my Dad and great-granddad laughing at what a POS the F-111B was for Navy use. The F-111 did a lot better as ground-based penetration and strike, which the Navy had anyway with the A-6.
I recall a dark joke in the early unreliable days of the F-111. "It's a boomerang. Sometimes it returned, sometimes it didn't." Proud we persisted and perfected it! ❤❤❤
Cannot accept this thesis. A better nickname for the F111 would have been 'the dog'. It took the USAF 20 years to get to get it to fly right. The accuracy of delivery was down to the emergence of smart weapons at roughly the same time. No aircraft guidance system has made a significant difference to weapons accuracy: making the weapons themselves more accurate is the solution. The RAAF purchased the F111 due to political pressure. The UK was in a similar position when it was pushed to cancel the TRS2 and order the F111 (later cancelled because Polaris was so much more effective). At least the UK could use a lot of the technological developments from the TSR2 on the Tornado.
A decidedly high anxiety interpretation of events. Much like the domino theory. How far did that go?
Declassified Australian strategic and cabinet papers from the Menzies era show that planners viewed Sukarno’s Indonesia as a disruptive "low-level" security threat …
rather than a superpower capable of mounting an amphibious assault on the Australian mainland
… Anxiety and military fervour rather than reality “justified” a very very expensive purchase … which never saw any action in defence of Australia
What significant evidence is there that Indonesia would have attacked Australia?
A great plane. But neededIt was “needed” only if you consider fighting essentially a civil war in foreign country eight hours flight away to support an ally in decline (America) … to be a necessity.
It certainly wasn’t a necessity for the defence of Australia. We haven’t been attacked for 80 years nor has anyone looked like trying it again since then
This is splendid content but the host really should be smoking a pipe and take long pauses. I think this would truly enhance the production.
Me suena a que el Su-24m2 podría ser una alternativa, sin tomar en cuenta el espectro político. Es un escenario para el que está diseñado
the f111 is a beautiful bird up close, they have an ex RAAF one at the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum
Back in '76, alone on a hill at Shoalwater Bay running a VHF relay for The Arty, busy warming breakfast on a hexie stove when I heard a brief rising pitch whistle [doppler effect] and all hell broke loose, really big noise and I was looking up the exhausts of an F111 climbing away.
I of course declared "Missed me" and began tracking them with my rifle as they orbited about 1km away, I suspect they were so amused that the did not see the pair of Mirage III, I of course declared that the friendly Mirage's had sorted the problem and began to prepare a replacement breakfast.
Very impressive machine which I will never forget, I reckon if they had lit the 'burners it would have been more than breakfast got warmed up.