October 4, 2023

I was a Supersonic Pig Tamer!

Interview with former RAAF F-111 Aardvark pilot Michael Crain

The Royal Australian Air Force had the most formidable warplane in the region with the swing-wing F-111. We spoke to former F-111 pilot Michael Crain to find out more.

Best thing about the F-111?

It was fast with buckets of fuel and handled exceptionally well at low level.

You could cruise at 480KIAS on the deck for 2.5 hours with only internal fuel.

…and worst?

Visibility mainly due to side by side seating.

Complete this sentence: ‘The F-111 was better than the Tornado because…

“It could drop a bomb in a bucket MORE than 25 miles from base” (stolen from the Buccaneer Song)

Complete this sentence: ‘The F-111 was better than the F/A-18 because…

…we could hit the targets! We had friends 🙂

What are the pros and cons of side-by-side seating?

Crew coordinations somewhat better. You can see what your crew mate is doing and someone brought in a knee tap as the signal when certain switch changes were made by the NAV. Resources can be shared so you don’t need to take two sets of everything and on long flights the Nav can prepare a gourmet meal while the pilot makes sure the autopilot behaves.

The Nav can act as a co-pilot during non tactical phases. That is how we trained them. And many were pretty good pilots once the jet was cleaned up and out of the circuit/instrument pattern. That’s where it was most difficult to fly well.

The biggest negatives would be lookout. The Nav spends a lot of time heads down so can be vulnerable from the right. One can offset this disadvantage by flying bloody fast and keeping all the bad guys in front where you can see them on the radar. This was very effective as we were looking up at any threats despite not having a pulse doppler radar and we were able to stay in ground clutter and limit observability from ground threats.

What is the fastest you ever took a F-111?

M2.2 at 50,000’ We were still climbing at 10,000 fpm at start of level off and I’d been trying to keep it at about M2. It was a rocketship! The jet was straight out of the AUP (Avionics Update Program) for its test flight schedule and my 3rd last flight.I have 1250kts Ground speed in my log book on a previous Mach 2 run with a student.

Was it still viable when retired?

Oh for sure. It was constantly being updated and better than when I left. The AUP meant we could do mission software upgrades, Paveway 3 and AGM-142 with a huge standoff range. We had better electronic warfare kit and Night Vision Goggles etc. Obviously it’s not stealthy but we were never a poor cousin to anyone in the big exercises.It would always depend on the opposition but I can’t remember ever being shot by any of our regional “opponents” on exercise.

For example I spent a week fighting Eagles in the Northern Territory on a RAAF FCI (Fighter Weapons School equivalent). They had AMRAAM and we were able to avoid them enough to stay out of range. Even after our F-18 escort had all ‘kill removed’ (left exercise after being ‘shot down’).

It’s harder at exercises such as Cope Thunder and Red Flag where the airspace is more limiting and forces everyone through a fairly narrow flightpath to do the same, but the point of those exercises is to push everyone through their limits and while you may get through the fighters you still have the ground defenses to get through. Fairly similar to what the Tornados saw when they were low in the first phase of Desert Storm.

What kind of upgrades did it need?

A head up display would have been good. Our deployment of Sidewinders was clunky and involved selecting the fuel transfer to the inboard or outboard station to uncage the seeker. Which made it a two person job! A case of HOTAS + a Nav!

While the Avionics Update program made the mission system and flight controls digital, it was politically sold as a maintainabilty update and not as a mission enhancement program and thus the left side of the cockpit was basically untouched. In reality it was a massive enhancement to our mission capability and that progress was ongoing after I moved on.

Datalink, better anti air capability for self defence,JDAMs and other J series weapons

Describe your most memorable mission

That’s quite hard to answer. Things that stand out are dogfighting Tornados and Hawks in Malaysia, shooting an F-16 at Red Flag, dropping a stick of high drags in the Cope Thunder using the pitot probe as sight (with the Nav who bombed Gaddafi’s Ilyushin in Eldorado Canyon whose PaveTack video was shown to the world), watching a Mk 84 bomb detonate beneath me and seeing the massive shockwave dome of rarefied air, to going head-to-head with an F/A-18 low level at over 1000kts closure while guns tracking.

But perhaps one I felt a sense of achievement was at Red Flag. Loaded with live Mk 82 bombs our target was an airfield in the range complex where we planned to simultaneously attack in pairs spread formation with just enough separation to stay out of each others frag envelope. On taxi our INS decided to head to Caesars Palace for an early beer, basically turning us into a 40-tonne-dump truck. I’d experienced the same problem on the range at home not before and after dropping all my practice bombs about 500 feet short doing how we had been trained for degraded visual delivery modes, I worked through the systems and developed a strategy in case it happened again. And now it had and it was time to test the theory.

Anyway after talking the Nav out of joining the INS at the bar we launched, fought our way through blue air. Jinked and chaffed though the layers of SA3s SA6s and ZSU-23-4s and eventually rolled out long enough to line up the target at exactly 550KIAS and 500’ dead level. The sight was now just a manually depressed dot with extra dialled in to account for AoA. No stabilisation, nothing. Took a deep breath, said a prayer and released.

We then fought our way back to the egress point while providing fighter escort for the B1Bones since Blue air had all bingoed out by then. After landing we had the big debrief and had to nervously await the results of all the strikers. Direct Hits, job done, a sigh of relief and that was the end of my Red Flag which I suppose was as close to combat as I ever got. So nothing really compared to those who have served in theatre.

What did maintainers think of the F-111?

At the Squadron level they loved what they did although they often put in long hours to have the jets mission ready. Our servicability rates where pretty good despite it being a relatively old airframe. There was a lot of pride throughout the maintenance organisations within the group. From depot level down to the squadron maintenance.

Which aircraft types did you feel competitive with and which did you look down on?

We felt we could hold our own against anyone. We trained so much with 4th generation fighters especially our own F-18s that we developed tactics to deal with them. We were quite aggressive in our own formation self defence which helped get the job done and notch up quite a few kills on bad guys with poor SA. There is not much more fun than getting a tone on a F-18 or F-16 and letting loose. And didn’t they hate being shot by a pig!

We didn’t look down on anyone, however we felt we had a pretty good advantage over anyone in the region. Especially with respect to training and competence with our equipment. But one can never be overconfident so all threats were treated with respect.

A big advantage we had was simply an honest, no holds barred and thorough debrief as one is accustomed to in Western forces. Lets just say that some/many regional forces don’t like losing face which does detract from learning opportunities.

What was the role of RAAF F-111s and is this adequately performed by the current types?

Land and Maritime Strike,

Reconnaissance

Precision Air Support (Tank Plinking)

Air Defence (against non fighter type)

CAIRS (in the G model)

Central gas Light and Heating (side job for major events)

The RAAF is highly capable now. While no individual asset probably has the capability of an F111 on its own and in its time, the force structure is excellent. Super Hornets including the Growlers are highly capable. With F35s, KC-30 tankers and Wedgetails they can project Air Power successfully within the region and beyond. One of our old mottos was “do more with less” and we were very good at getting the most of what we had, but since the mid 90s the RAAF has been working on plugging the gaps in its own capability.

Tell me something I don’t know about the F-111?

We could use the Pavetack to get a sidewinder lock on a non manoeuvring target in the dark.

I helped develop no lock intercepts from an ex Mirage pilot. We could be vectored (or do it ourselves) onto a target and complete an intertept where we rolled out behind the target. The Pavetack could be cued to the same reference as an AIM9 and the Nav would talk the pilot up/down/left right etc to get a lock. Sort of boring and interesting at the same time!

What should I have asked you?

Who’s the best pilot? Although probably best you didn’t since unfortunately it’s not me!

Do ‘dump and burns’ have any tactical application?

Dump and burns are just a party trick although the quickest way to reduce wight at around 4000lbs/minute. Simply light the afterburners, turn on fuel dump and try not to go supersonic through the High St :). It really has no practical function although maybe it would confuse an IR missile. It just feels the same as every time you select full afterburner – 5 distinct kicks as each zone lights up (that’s what select zone5 means) and a massive acceleration. There really isn’t anything else comparable (except the roller coaster at Ferrari world Abu Dhabi-thats like carrier launch!).

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Could you beat a Tornado in a drag race?

Pretty much if you start at say 450kts though it would be neck and neck with a Tornado until their low fuel light comes on)). Imagine the Tomcat B would be the same. But we could pretty much out run anything. I noted an Hornet flights that their acceleration hit a bit of a wall at around 550 kts whereas we would just sweep the wings back and maintain the acceleration.