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Old 10-27-2018, 10:23 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RN7 View Post
The Tu-22M Backfire has the range to hit Northern Australia from Vietnam, but the RAAF could also hit them back with a F-111G strike in this period.
And this is also the same time period where the RAAF was finally in possession of inflight refuelling tankers.

At the time, the B707 aircraft we had were not fitted with the tail boom refuelling probe that would be required by the F-111's because it was felt that the FA-18's needed the range increase allowed by inflight refuelling more than the F-111's did.
By way of comparison, the RAAF FA-18A with a 4000lb weapons load and 6000lbs of external fuel had a strike range of approximately 1020km while the RAAF F-111A/C with the same 4000lb load and no external fuel had a strike range of 2040km.
Info taken from here: - http://ausairpower.net/raaf-707.html

While the tail boom probe was not part of the modification, it was studied as part of the options for inflight refuelling. It's always possible that we could get technical/engineering help from the UK & USA if an urgent requirement for inflight refuelling of the F-111's was found and the modification to the B707's could be carried out in Australia.
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