Maybe someone might want to do a RAAF B-1B?

[JosefK 911]

From TheDrive.com: 

Quote

Acquire surplus B-1B Lancers from the United States. This will probably be the crowd-pleaser of this post, and it sounds a bit odd, but it actually makes a ton of sense. There is a decent chance that the B-1B fleet could be sunsetted early. In fact, it could get the budgetary axe next year. If the USAF elects to wind down B-1B operations, the RAAF should attempt to acquire the cream of the fleet and the U.S. should offer it to them at the cost of nothing. You don't need a B-21 to chuck standoff missiles far from home. The B-1B is extremely capable of this mission and others. They are not cheap to operate, but if they can be had for the cost of nothing, the operational cost could be seen as a bargain. In addition, if the U.S. retires its fleet, keeping say a dozen to 18 of them in top operational condition should be far easier than it is now. Parts would not be an issue and only the best airframes would be acquired. Paired with the RAAF's tanker support and electronic warfare and intelligence gathering capabilities, the bone would be a near-ideal tool for waging long-range warfare in Australia's neck of the woods. They can also be upgraded to carry future hypersonic weapons and even defend themselves from aerial attack. Another big plus is that its nuclear capability has been eliminated. Concerns with dual-use capabilities, however dubious, won't be a factor. In the end, offloading some of the type to Australia could also help increase bomber presence where it is needed most without having the Pentagon pay for it or risking highly sensitive assets. It is a win-win. 

I couldn't agree more... sure seems like a fun What-If project for one of you guys.  Especially if the B-1C - and it would have to be a C because the F-111C was Aussie - had AMRAAM and anti-radiation missile capability... 

JOSEFK 

[dsawan 624]

future possibility

[dsawan 624]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Flag_of_Latvia.svg

[+daddyairplanes 10,234]

i'm aiming to do a pack on early Bones next year (after i wrap up the SAC Varks). main focus is SAC era and the ANG squadrons in the 90s. but if our supposed KoalaBone is same color as the current fleet, wouldnt be a problem to upgrade 81 Wing as well.

another possiblilty that was discussed (and even less likely to happen than going to RAAF) is giving them to the Navy and reviving the VPB squadrons, which is one i'd thought had on this as well

https://othjournal.com/2019/04/15/a-bomber-for-the-navy/

back on topic, give me some ideas on what you'd want to see, then give me two weeks (a modders two weeks)

[JosefK 911]

4 hours ago, daddyairplanes said:

i'm aiming to do a pack on early Bones next year (after i wrap up the SAC Varks). main focus is SAC era and the ANG squadrons in the 90s. but if our supposed KoalaBone is same color as the current fleet, wouldnt be a problem to upgrade 81 Wing as well.

another possiblilty that was discussed (and even less likely to happen than going to RAAF) is giving them to the Navy and reviving the VPB squadrons, which is one i'd thought had on this as well

https://othjournal.com/2019/04/15/a-bomber-for-the-navy/

back on topic, give me some ideas on what you'd want to see, then give me two weeks (a modders two weeks)

I like the idea of a What-If B-1B Pack of...

• RAAF B-1C with some air-to-air capability, not necessarily B-1R but maybe the ability.
• USN with the loadouts here plus optionally AIM-120s & HARMs because frankly a squadron or two of renovated PB-1s make more sense than another wad of destroyers...

[+daddyairplanes 10,234]

gonna disagree with any air to air capability on grounds of cost (yeah i know its a game and ini edits are free)

the cost to upgrade for a2a for any future user would make it more than its worth, esp with the maintenance costs to keep them airworthy. HARMs is kinda pushin it i think and crews could use NOE tactics and jammers like past and current Bone crews

both proposals center around AGM-158C LRASM which at the moment is only cleared on the F/A-18E and B-1B. one of which is used by both proposed users, the other proposed for those users.

 

[JosefK 911]

5 hours ago, daddyairplanes said:

gonna disagree with any air to air capability on grounds of cost (yeah i know its a game and ini edits are free)

the cost to upgrade for a2a for any future user would make it more than its worth, esp with the maintenance costs to keep them airworthy. HARMs is kinda pushin it i think and crews could use NOE tactics and jammers like past and current Bone crews

both proposals center around AGM-158C LRASM which at the moment is only cleared on the F/A-18E and B-1B. one of which is used by both proposed users, the other proposed for those users.

 

Sorry but I like the idea of packing some AIM-120s in a rotary bay, especially considering the B-1B radar has had a massive upgrade which, "Can be modified with a Multitarget Track (MTT) software mode for Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM) deployment."  I think it isn't that hard to swing the B-1B around, fling a few AIM-120s and run away under the umbrella of friendly air defenses gracefully.

We agree on the LRASM 100% :-).

[Spinners 15,986]

It's in there somewhere. Ah, Page 59.

Edited November 30, 2019 by Spinners

[+daddyairplanes 10,234]

specifically this one i think.

[JosefK 911]

2 hours ago, daddyairplanes said:

specifically this one i think.

Found the pictures, but not the file.

 

But hmmm... I might have some spare time the last two weeks of December so after Nihon Hitori 2020 is polished off... maybe some Lancer 2025 quick strike game is a good idea?

[+daddyairplanes 10,234]

get back to you around then, FB-111 should be done and released by then and nukes seems to be a slow burner project. my SAC project involves cleaning up the Euro1 paint job and positioning decals, so not too far off to adjust a decal.ini for the Ozzies.

can do the same for the grey scheme that followed as i want to do the ANG Bones too (just not the GWOT active wings)

would Aussie humor have them now called Bone B.1?

[+daddyairplanes 10,234]

bumpin this back as im on a slight pause with SAC and ANG Bones while i get some research done on McConnell

my thoughts on this, 

units:a repurposed 85 Wing (Southern Bomber Command rather than Air Lift Group) featuring No 12 and  No 460 or 467 Sqns. 460 is currently an intel unit, but with the return of 4 engined bombers i think it would get renamed and the historically signifigant unit resume flying bombers. No 12 was part of the original 85 Wing as they were gearing up for Japan in mid 1945. me thinks an RAAF getting Bones in the late 2010s would be more nostalgic than one gettin them in the 90s

Serials: while Spinners features A43 series, it was allocated to RQ-7 drones. A55 is not allocated (as of 2019) and the last 3 digits could simply be the last 3 of USAF serial like with the Pigs. how many are we envisioning transferring and when?

tail markings: maybe a kangaroo with a cruise missile silohuette?

skin would be all grey unless your telling me they got em before 95

JosefK, will let you do load outs and any localized radar or EW work, though will try to get exhuast edits to ya as soon as i have them on the _86. as it is currently, just isnt as spectacular as on the real thing or even videos of such

Edited February 20, 2020 by daddyairplanes

[JosefK 911]

On 2/19/2020 at 4:44 PM, daddyairplanes said:

 

JosefK, will let you do load outs and any localized radar or EW work, though will try to get exhuast edits to ya as soon as i have them on the _86. as it is currently, just isnt as spectacular as on the real thing or even videos of such

I'll stay tuned.

[+daddyairplanes 10,234]

ok toned down a bit as i'm getting a bit burned out on Bones (say that three times fast) but heres what i got......

in order to both bolster a request from Austrailia as well as reduce the inventory of B-1 bombers a total of 8 were approved for lease to the RAAF in November 1996. Crew training and refurbishing meant that the first bombers didnt actually arrive until February of 1998. All 8 airframes came from lots II and III of the production run (FY83 and FY84) and were assigned ADF serials starting with A55 and ending in the last three of their USAF serial.

No 460 Squadron was reformed to operate the bombers in a primary long range maritime patrol mission with a secondary long range strike capability retained. The first aircraft featured nose art named Leader with a kangaroo playing bagpipes in honour of the squadrons role over Europe in WW2. Squadron marking include a toned down squadron badge below the DSO window, and a silohuette of a kangaroo riding a bomerang in orange

 

serial as indicated, with the A55 number and the original USAF serial in the number.lst, looking up a few more nose arts and figuring out a couple serials from 2003 for a second batch. also thinking they may go back to the Strategic scheme in the 2000s for the local overland role.

any suggestions? hope to have the skin portion to you withing the week depending on RL

 

[JosefK 911]

7 hours ago, daddyairplanes said:

ok toned down a bit as i'm getting a bit burned out on Bones (say that three times fast) but heres what i got......

in order to both bolster a request from Australia as well as reduce the inventory of B-1 bombers a total of 8 were approved for lease to the RAAF in November 1996. Crew training and refurbishing meant that the first bombers didn't actually arrive until February of 1998. All 8 airframes came from lots II and III of the production run (FY83 and FY84) and were assigned ADF serials starting with A55 and ending in the last three of their USAF serial.

No 460 Squadron was reformed to operate the bombers in a primary long range maritime patrol mission with a secondary long range strike capability retained. The first aircraft featured nose art named Leader with a kangaroo playing bagpipes in honour of the squadrons role over Europe in WW2. Squadron marking include a toned down squadron badge below the DSO window, and a silhouette of a kangaroo riding a boomerang in orange

...

serial as indicated, with the A55 number and the original USAF serial in the number.lst, looking up a few more nose arts and figuring out a couple serials from 2003 for a second batch. also thinking they may go back to the Strategic scheme in the 2000s for the local overland role.

any suggestions? hope to have the skin portion to you withing the week depending on RL

 

I would think they'd definitely go to what the RAAF F-111s were painted in the 2000s - a semi-light grey.  They'd also pack a lotta Harpoons, Popeye and J-DAM.  For starters. 

As to the future of the RAAF B-1Bs... well AIM-120s and even Gabriel & SPICE missiles from Israel would come eventually in the late 1990s making them B-1K Keatings that Dale Brown readers would salivate over.  This was in return for a secret agreement Israel could use the bombers in a national emergency such as if Israel was about to be overrun or if Iran posed too much of a nuclear threat - and Israel would help Australia if Australia was in existential danger.  Israel eventually would show up at Perth Airport with refueling tankers in mid-November 2020 to collect on that debt of honor and annihilate Iran's nuclear capability with reflagged B-1Ks in their only "in anger" performance creating a second front too much for Iranian air defenses to handle with no RAAF/IDF losses.

You may wonder how in the 2003-2008 participation in the Iraq War and the ISIS conflict the B-1Ks were able to sit those out while the RAAF sent F/A-18As and eventually F/A-18Fs?  It had to be made clear time & again to US Central Command that the B-1Ks were intended to serve as Australia's non-nuclear strategic deterrent to protect the Australian homeland - not to fly sorties as J-DAM trucks and flying boom boxes over the Middle East.  It helped when until late 2020 very few knew of the fine details of the secret Israeli-Australian agreement plus few in the US Government were ever wild about expanding the nuclear club to anyone except for some loudmouth named Donald J. Trump who had to watch Israel & Australia (and covertly some Middle Eastern nations like Iraq) whack Iran a week after Joe Biden became President-elect.

The People's Republic of China got the memo once the agreement was released via a leak to the Aussie press and had to give direct, firm reassurances they had no intention to initiate hostilities against anyone.  Also never again would the PRC allow a pandemic leave their shores either... fearing a Prime Minister Anthony Albanese would make good on his threat to send the B-1Ks with new stealth cruise missiles after the People's Liberation Army Navy if another Covid-19 landed on Aussie shores.

The Aussies were able to keep their big stick around for so long by limiting flight hours, gracious Israeli assistance with the avionics & weapons to the point of Israeli refurbishing the avionics so the B-1K could be flown by two aircrew if desired, cannibalizing aging USAF B-1Bs for parts, and growing use of 3-d printing.  It was part of the Australian political consensus with a rising People's Republic of China + other regional troublemakers the harsh lessons of World War II and 11 September wouldn't be forgotten.  Eventually in the late 2020s with no replacement for the B-1 except for the B-21 Raider retained for US-use only, the RAAF decided to replace what became B-1Cs with F-15EXs upgraded by Israel.

Edited March 30, 2020 by JosefK

[+daddyairplanes 10,234]

wow more detailed than i was going on back story, i was just going into what unit got them and how they got them in the 90s (accelerating the "retirement" of the fleet a couple of years). to paraphrase Jules Winfield, that story is some serious gourmet Spinners style shit

back to skin and serials....  i've worked 8 airframes for the 90s transfer, figure another 4 for 2000s although one is an attrition replacement in my head (training crash in 2000 timeframe). just gotta do door numbers too and 98 is done.

would like your opinions on going back to the old SAC scheme in early 2010s, use of retro WW2 nose arts (some modern touch up) on the birds, and a little more detail on operational use by the Israelis (thats one Dale Brown book i havent heard of) so that one can get done up. there will also be a cartoon nose art thats part of the package (to be shown later today or tomorrow)

as said above, ini work i'll leave to you, will send the skins to you when complete. the afterburner bit i mentioned is done, just adjusted the effects (also included when sent

 

[+daddyairplanes 10,234]

interestingly an actual 460th Lancaster, thought with some modernization by me (letters not the girl)

 

more in the What if Screenshot thread, got 460 Sqn 1998 roughly where i want it.  just need some marking input on the rest

[JosefK 911]

6 hours ago, daddyairplanes said:

would like your opinions on going back to the old SAC scheme in early 2010s, use of retro WW2 nose arts (some modern touch up) on the birds, and a little more detail on operational use by the Israelis (thats one Dale Brown book i havent heard of) so that one can get done up. there will also be a cartoon nose art thats part of the package (to be shown later today or tomorrow)

as said above, ini work i'll leave to you, will send the skins to you when complete. the afterburner bit i mentioned is done, just adjusted the effects (also included when sent

 

Thanks @daddyairplanes.

I don't think going back to the old SAC scheme is too wise.  The RAAF is going to a light grey.  Go ahead and do nose arts :-).

For the record, the Israeli idea is 100% mine.  Something I came up with because the RAAF already has Israeli weapons like the Popeye.  Both nations know full well how alliances with Europe only work so well - the RAAF who couldn't get their troops home from European battlefields once Japan started heading their way with the fall of Singapore as Paul Keating spoke so well about and the Israelis who had the French mess with their aircraft purchases in the 1960s.  Plus Israeli used to use B-17s and could use strategic bombers in a pinch...

I await excitedly the inis.  A simple decals.ini change will address the Israeli concept as the B-1Ks were just reflagged :-).

[+daddyairplanes 10,234]

hell, unless you were doing a seperate desert skin i can knock out the israelis too. should just be a matter of "painting over " the Aussie markings an most numbers and leaving the last 3 of the serial on the tail. by paint over i would put a grey patch UNDER the new marking in the tga. no need to adjust anything other than a folder directory

but i also had a thought of doing a flying gerbil, like the orange kangaroo but on the nose while the IDFAF is borrowing them. just gotta know how many they borrow (all arent realistic in any fashion)

took one serial off for 2012, adding 4 that IRL went to AMARG in the early 2000s.

finally B-1K is more British (F-4K, english version of the Aardvark was to be F-111K). I was thinking B-1C like the F-111 became in RAAF service. but can rename it all to K if you like (currently the folders are B-1B_RAAF)

[JosefK 911]

Just now, daddyairplanes said:

hell, unless you were doing a seperate desert skin i can knock out the israelis too. should just be a matter of "painting over " the Aussie markings an most numbers and leaving the last 3 of the serial on the tail. by paint over i would put a grey patch UNDER the new marking in the tga. no need to adjust anything other than a folder directory

but i also had a thought of doing a flying gerbil, like the orange kangaroo but on the nose while the IDFAF is borrowing them. just gotta know how many they borrow (all arent realistic in any fashion)

took one serial off for 2012, adding 4 that IRL went to AMARG in the early 2000s.

finally B-1K is more British (F-4K, english version of the Aardvark was to be F-111K). I was thinking B-1C like the F-111 became in RAAF service. but can rename it all to K if you like (currently the folders are B-1B_RAAF)

a) You got my Israeli idea right

b) Well I meant K for former Aussie Finance Minister & Prime Minister Paul Keating but yeah B-1C also works.  There was the F-111C for the RAAF, which was then augmented by FB-111s that became F-111Gs.