RNZAF's Biggest Jet Air Strike

[Dave Homewood]

Now here's a day that would have been great fun to watch. I wonder if any official photos exist... This is taken from NZ Wings magazine June 1974, page 18.

RNZAF's Biggest Jet Air Strike

The RNZAF last month mounted its largest air strike of jet aircraft, when 15 Skyhawks and Strikemasters took part in exercises with Royal Navy Ships visiting New Zealand.

The big strike took place as a convoy comprising a guided missile destroyer and several frigates was steaming along the east coast of the North Island.

Throughout the day of the mock attack, the convoy was shadowed by a P-3B Orion from Whenuapai.

The jet attack took place in three phases; the first involved two Strikemasters of No. 14 Squadron which acted as decoys.

They flew direct from Ohakea towards the ships, off the Volkner Islets in the Bay of Plenty, but at the last moment turned away towards the north.

While the ships' radars were thracking these aircraft another four Strikemasters approached from the south for dive-bombing attacks.

Then, as the ships were dealing with these, eight Skyhawks of No. 75 Squadron made low-level attacks from the east.

Folowing their dummy attacks on the Royal Navy ships, the RNZAF jets fired their weapons at a splash target towed behind a RNZN minesweeper, Kiama.

During the jets' take off a full scale alert was sounded at Ohakea when one of the Strikemasters ruptured an underwing tank.

The aircraft was being taxied across the grass and as it went to mount the runway the bottom of the fuel tank struck the edge of the concrete runway.

The alert was sounded because of the danger of fire from the spilled fuel: the aircraft was not damaged in the incident.

________________________________________________

Cool eh. They don't say the results. How many ships were sunk I wonder, if any. I was interested to read of Blunties taking part in anti-shipping with the Skyhawks. I never considered the two squadrons working together before like this.

And seriously, is this really the biggest jet strike? What about the Vampire or Venom of Canberra eras, did they never beat this?

[skyhawkdon]

Yes there were bigger jet formations and strike packages after this date (not sure about before 1974 though).

In April 1987 a 30 jet formation was flown out of Ohakea using 18 Skyhawks (the largest Skyhawk formation the RNZAF ever put up), 4 Strikemasters, 4 F-18's and 4 Mirages.

During Triad 84 some of the strike packages would have been more than 15 aircraft too (F-16's, Strikemasters, A-4's, Mirages, F-111's & F-15's). Although not all were on the same side! The F-15's and Blunties were based out of Whenuapai, the F-111's out of Christchurch and the rest were based at Ohakea.

In Feb 1999 we flew a dawn 15 ship Skyhawk maritime strike out of Nowra using all the 75 & 2 Sqn jets we had there for an exercise. It took a lot of hard work to ensure all 15 were serviceable for the sortie (the night shift were still there working on the last aircraft when we came in for the start of the day shift). There are photos of this formation in the air and on the ground at Calum's A-4 Alley web site.

During many exercises in Australia and SE Asia the strike packages would have often been over 15 aircraft (including the Cope Thunder Exercises in The Philippines in the early 1980's). Being able to integrate into such large mixed packages was an important part of the RNZAF's Air Combat Force capability right up until the end.

[skyhawkdon]

Here are 2 photos of the 30 jet formation from 1987. Both are RNZAF Official photos

.

[Dave Homewood]

Wow, an awesome formation there Don. I assume this was for the 50th Anniversary Parade?

How many Skyhawks and Blunties attended and flew at the main parade that month at Wigram? Does anyone know?

[Dave Homewood]

There's only 16 A-4's in that second shot, and the oher is hard to count.

[skyhawkdon]

The 18 Skyhawks included the golden TA-4G NZ6256 (was also the camera ship I believe) and a silver (bare metal) A-4K that had either just come back from 1RD or was about to go there. In the photos I attached only green Skyhawks were in the gaggle. I have a photo of all 18 lined up on the flightline and another one of all the A-4 pilots who flew the formation.

For the 50th Anniversary parade and flypast at Wigram there were 8 Skyhawks and 8 Strikemasters in that formation. It was a different day to the 30 ship gaggle.

[skyhawkdon]

Oops I just recounted the 50th Anniversary Parade formation and there are 9 Skyhawks and 9 Strikemasters in it and not 8 of each.


...and the 18 Skyhawks prior to takeoff. Spot the Gold TA-4 and silver A-4 way down the line.


...and the pilots who flew them

[Dave Homewood]

Great photos again, especially the Wigram formation. Thanks Don.

[turboNZ]

Back in the old days of happier times when we had a strike force.

Doesn't it make you just miss the jets...

Those photos are awesome, thanks for sharing !!!!

[steve]

Yes I agree Dave ...really great pics..What a shame we did not utilise some of them in Gulf 1..
I would be interested to know from you guys with RNZAF backgrounds about any plans you knew of to deploy the A4s into a combat zone....ie If a deployment was authorised say to gulf 1 what numbers would be required to be opertionally useful? 8 a4s deployed to allow for a six flight strike force..plus a support c130 ...just guessing.....

[skyhawkdon]

Yes 75 Sqn was worked up for a possible deployment to the Gulf War in 1990/91. The operational tempo on the Sqn shifted up a gear and training sorties were flown with more realistic weapon configurations (eg MER's and TER's instead of practice bomb racks). I was on 2 Sqn at the time preparing for our deployment to Nowra. I remember a lot of discussion around the Base about whether we would be going to the Gulf instead.

75 Sqn had a very memorable "Happy Hour" in Jan 91 which I attended. The theme was the Gulf War. Guest speaker was "Sadam" complete with an PRG. The 75 Sqn Baggies Crew room was decorated in a desert theme with palm trees and camels.

Deploying a squadron of A-4's was top of the list of capabilities offered to Government, but the thought of actually dropping bombs on people was too much for the gutless politicians to cope with - another opportunity lost. At that time the Kahu system was brand new and was the best Nav/Attack system flying anywhere in the world. We would have shown the world a thing or two if we had been given the opportunity to contribute. Instead NZ sent 40 Sqn with a couple of Hercs and a medical team.

A knock on affect of the Gulf War was that flying hours and weapons training were drastically cut in 1991 for all RNZAF units, because the price of fuel sky rocketed. Ironically, if we had gone to the Gulf the Saudi's would have paid for all our fuel, weapons and accommodation costs!

2 Sqn contributed to the Australian Navy's preparation for its deployment to the Gulf, on our arrival in Nowra. We worked up one of their Frigates before it deployed. It was our first tasking at Nowra and we gave the ship such a hiding it wasn't declaired operationally fit for deployment! In the end we had to follow it all the way around the east coast of Austarlia and then on to Darwin, where we continued to work it up as it sailed for the Gulf. This was the RAN's first taste of what the kiwi A-4's could do and they were suitably impressed.

[xr6turbo1]

The photos of all of the pilots is a great shot

[Calum]

skyhawkdon said:

It was our first tasking at Nowra and we gave the ship such a hiding it wasn't declaired operationally fit for deployment! In the end we had to follow it all the way around the east coast of Austarlia and then on to Darwin, where we continued to work it up as it sailed for the Gulf. This was the RAN's first taste of what the kiwi A-4's could do and they were suitably impressed.

And what a trip that was, the Hobart leaking petrol thorugh the RAAF C-130, boy were they not impressed.

Turning up in Darwin and getting to the barracks to find we had 1 sheet bewteen two :-)

The groundies , including SNCO's getting briefed by the MFC for getting on the piss and turning up to work a little under the weather.

Ah the memories :-)

[Dave Homewood]

I do agree it was an opportunity lost, but imagine the negative impact on the RNZAF and the NZ public's and government's reaction had we lost aircraft and crews in the war. That would have not been pleasant.

Does anyone remember the date that the Government decided to not send 75 Sqn and go with 40 instead? I think it was fairly close to the deadline, wasn't it? I recll hearing through the RNZAF grapevine that the sqn had all had their jabs and stabs, etc and were almost ready to go when they were stood down.

[skyhawkdon]

As unpleasant as a real shooting war (including casualties and loosing aircraft) may be, that is the price we ultimately pay for our freedom. Freedom is not free - it has been and always will be paid for in blood. It is also about pulling our weight and doing our bit. While NZ has made many contributions to military operations around the world in the last 15 years, increasingly we have been at the tail of the operations and not the teeth. We seem happy to leave the risky combat operations to others.

One of the advantages of deploying an Air Combat Force into a real shooting war is that it exposes a minimum number of personnel to the risks of combat, compared to say sending in a company of grunts or a frigate. Sadly we no longer have that option available to us. There is a greater chance of causalities in "peacekeeping" operations than there is in deploying a Squadron of air combat aircraft.

[steve]

Don...well stated....I believe that a credible air combat force is still affordable working with the aussies. However if that was not possible you would expect the savings would have been transferred in boosting our other air components substantially. Its truly amazing how in 30 years since the vietnam war how public opinion in defence matters has gone so much anti US UK and to a degree australia ... A strike wing was always the first priority to flog off followed closely with those "combat" frigates of the navy ( coast guard)!

[Dave Homewood]

skyhawkdon said:

As unpleasant as a real shooting war (including casualties and loosing aircraft) may be, that is the price we ultimately pay for our freedom. Freedom is not free - it has been and always will be paid for in blood. It is also about pulling our weight and doing our bit. While NZ has made many contributions to military operations around the world in the last 15 years, increasingly we have been at the tail of the operations and not the teeth. We seem happy to leave the risky combat operations to others.

One of the advantages of deploying an Air Combat Force into a real shooting war is that it exposes a minimum number of personnel to the risks of combat, compared to say sending in a company of grunts or a frigate. Sadly we no longer have that option available to us. There is a greater chance of causalities in "peacekeeping" operations than there is in deploying a Squadron of air combat aircraft.

You're absolutely right. Well put.

When was NZ's last full combat deployment? Must be Vietnam I guess? Or Malaya?

[skyhawkdon]

East Timor would have been close to a full combat deployment - although there wasn't a lot of people actually shooting at us. It was only the presence overhead of armed Aussie F-18's and the threat of F-111 strikes that kept the Indonesians out of it. Without that Air Combat Force deterrent (including 14 NZ Skyhawks sitting ready at Amberly) things could have been quite different...

[Calum]

NZ SAS in Afghanistan would be (is?) last deployment for the NZDF where combat was sought. The NZDF PRT's in Afghanistan currently are also at risk.

[Dave Homewood]

Well, the SAS would be correct but that deployment is the last one officially acknowledged (thanks to the media!). They are not like your average military and are constantly active somewhere in the world - we're just not allowed to hear about it (I don't think they tell the PM either).

What's a PRT?

Do we still have a frigate and an Orion in the Arabian Gulf?