Under New Ownership - Raven EF.111

[scooter]

Cross posted in the Scooter's Randomness - The Art of Elven Blend:

Hi rez here


As the Londthyrian Confederacy Air Service B-58s entered their second service life extension, the Ministry of Defense and Deputy Minister for Air began looking into a replacement supersonic medium bomber and interdictor.  While bids were tendered for a tactical multi-role fighter, the Air Ministry began looking into an aircraft that could replace not only the B-58 but RA-5D Vigilantes in the reconnaissance role.

The Air Ministry entered into negotiations with the United States Air Force to purchase 30 retired FB-111A\F-111Gs from the Davis-Monthan AMARC (Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center), while entering into a joint purchase of Aardvarks for spare parts with the Royal Australian Air Force.  The memoranda of understanding between the Londthyrian Air Ministry, USAF, and RAAF included the provision for 15 EF-111A Ravens, sans ECM and avionics gear, upon USAF retirement, and the RAAF's F-111C fleet upon retirement should the LCAS F-111s remain in service at that time.

Upon receipt of the stripped out F-111s, the Air Ministry signed a multi-million crown contract with SAAB, Volvo Aero, IAI, and Gymraeg Heavy Industries to zero-time and upgrade the airframes and avionics including PS-05A multi-mode radar, glass cockpits, HOTAS, new RM-12 afterburning turbofan engines, Storm Shadow ALCM integration, AGM-84 series integration, JDAM integration, , and short range AAM (AIM-9, IRIS-T, ASRAAM) integration for self defense.  Ravens include a new ECM\ECCM\ESM suite by Ericsson and anti-radar missile and short range AAM integration.  The contract also provided for continual upgrades and service life extensions.  All aircraft coming off the line were redesignated as GR or ER.111

The first thirty aircraft were placed in a provisional 5 squadron bomber wing, of which two squadrons were activated and achieved IOC in the early 2000s.  Spare airframes were placed in a provisional AMARC.  One squadron was designated for arriving ER.111 Ravens, while the fifth squadron comprised the operational training unit.  Four former RAAF RF-111Cs, and two GR.111s converted to reconnaissance platforms are spread out between the three operations squadrons.