How missions succeeded

F/A-18 pilots receive a detailed pre-mission briefing. Photo by WO2 Alan Green

By WO2 Alan Green

KEEPING the Air Force’s F/A-18s on target has been an exacting job.

Operation Falconer has demanded high levels of cooperation between elements required for a successful mission.

Long before pilots arrive for their pre-mission brief, target selection and mission planning have been completed.

Issued their maps, the pilots are given a detailed pre-flight brief specifying timings, approach paths and enemy threat – information essential to mission success and the elimination of nasty surprises.

After the briefing, the pilots suit up in their combat survival vests and helmets, a rig carefully prepared and inspected by the life-support crew. Survival at 10,000 metres, or in case of ejection, is reliant on this outfit.
On the hot, dusty flightline, Australian F/A-18s stand in a row, silent and ready kept in pristine condition by round-the-clock shifts of ground crew.

It’s not an easy task – they have fine dust, and lots of it, to cope with along with the usual challenges of operating from a deployed location. The aircraft are standing up well owing to the dedication of these maintainers.

After the pilot completely checks over the aircraft, he is strapped in and, with his wingman, taxis past Coalition aircraft and takes off over the bundles of razor wire protecting the airfield.

Clear of the security of the airfield, the F/A-18 takes a vertical climb into a dusty sky.

Somewhere over Iraq, there’s a refuelling aircraft and the Hornets queue patiently with other Coalition aircraft.
Over the target, the pilot applies total focus – the technology and the human being synchronised with the single aim of dropping bombs on time and on target.

The tools that pilots use to put armaments accurately on to the carefully chosen targets include cutting-edge locating equipment and precision-guided weapons. At any time, however, if any doubt arises the pilot can abort the drop – caution is considered an asset.

The objective destroyed and confirmed it’s a long ride home.

Only when images of targets are analysed, the pilot debriefed and the aircraft refitted for its next flight can the mission be said to be over.

.