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Royal Australian Navy Skyhawks
The magnificent Douglas A-4 Skyhawk served with the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) from 1968 until 1984 with two squadrons: VF805 and VC724. VF805 was the front-line fighter unit that served aboard the aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne, while VC724 was shore-based at Naval Air Station Nowra for training and support.
During that period, the aircraft on the Melbourne gave the RAN a unique capability that was central to Australian defence policy.
P. Allen (Nobby) Clark, former RAN A-4 Skyhawk pilot, recalls in the book The Skyhawk Years: A-4 Skyhawks in Australian Service 1968 – 1984 by Peter Greefield, David Prest;
‘[In 1979] VF805 was embarked for Exercise Kangaroo III, which was being conducted off the Queensland coast. During the early phase of the exercise, we had received a number of attacks from the F-111s but our A-4s had not been able to counter these with any effective intercepts.
‘The successful raids on the fleet were invariably conducted at first light so I suggested to our then squadron CO, Lieutenant Commander Errol Kavanagh, that we should have two aircraft prepared on deck before first light, engines running with one aircraft on the cat ready for launch. As soon as we received intelligence a raid was inbound, we could have two aircraft airborne within a minute or so.
‘I’m not at liberty to reveal how we discovered an inbound raid was imminent (maybe something to do with airborne helicopters being advised to maintain a particular altitude), but Errol was immediately airborne and climbing through low broken cloud, and I followed moments later.
RAN A-4 Vs RAAF F-111
‘As I climbed out, and just a few miles straight ahead of the carrier, I spotted through the broken hazy cloud a very low F-111. Immediately, I rolled into a tight right-hand dive and accelerated to maximum speed, latching onto the tail of the raider.
‘With only Sidewinder missiles on board, the A-4 was capable of over 600 knots at sea level and, assuming the F-111 was simulating a bombing attack, its speed at that stage would have been subsonic and slower than my aircraft.
‘When conducting a Sidewinder attack, the indication of a successful ‘lock on’ is listening for a ‘growl’ (which can be heard through the helmet headset) from the infra-red sensor located in the nose of the missile. When the missile is launched (real or simulated), the call over the radio is ‘Fox 2’ (Fox 1 being 20-mm cannon). In this instance, just before we flew over the flightdeck, I locked on and made my Fox 2 call. Meanwhile, in the Operations Room, the Fighter Flight Ops Director was being monitored by the exercise umpire.
‘The probability of achieving a ‘kill’ was determined by the simple throw of a dice. I’m unsure what number coincided with a successful attack, but in this instance the radio call came back saying the shot was a miss which necessitated another launch.
Inter-service rivalry
‘By now, the F-111 had started to ‘sweep’ its wings and was accelerating away from me but, in cognisance of the strong growl in the headset and my eyeball estimate of distance, I was confident I was still within Sidewinder range.
‘Again, I made the Fox 2 call and, from what I was later told, the director was yelling ‘Roll the dice, roll the effing dice.’ The call then came over the radio saying I’d achieved a kill. This resulted in a heated complaint from the hierarchy at RAAF Amberley questioning the integrity and professionalism of the Skyhawk pilots!
‘My guess as to what brought this about was the fact a second F-111 had just completed an attack on an outlying warship approximately ten miles to my port side (possibly HMAS Supply) and was turning to join his companion. By the time he saw me and his buddy, there is little doubt my target had accelerated away at supersonic speed and I would have been well and truly out of missile range.’
Clark concludes;
‘The resulting story of our successful attack against the raiding F-111 was promptly recorded in the Brisbane newspapers and it was this story that infuriated the boys in blue and led to their ‘nastygram’ to the fleet commander. Ah, the fun and games of inter-service rivalry.’
The Skyhawk Years: A-4 Skyhawks in Australian Service 1968 – 1984 is published by Avonmore Books and is available to order here.
Photo credit: U.S. Navy and Jeff Gilbert – JGPhotographics.com via Wikipedia
