Back in March 2006, the RAAF bubbas got a chance to practice their maritime dominance mission while (whilst?) putting paid to a drug smuggling ship, the North Korea-registered Pong Su.
The Pong Su was seized by federal police in 2003 carrying 125 kilograms of heroin.
An Air Force F-111 yesterday bombed the vessel, sending it to the bottom of the ocean, 140 kilometres off the south coast.
Mr Ruddock says this sends a clear message to people involved in transporting drugs.
An even clearer message would have been sending that puppy down with the smugglers still on board, but we are a little more evolved than that. Alas.
The video is pretty cool:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4TCqcWkDM0[/youtube]
2000 pound laser guided bombs are not to be trifled with – and observant readers will note the “bat turn” one of the LGB’s makes on the FLIR video as it flies towards the Pong Su. I have to admit, for your true efficiency in sending scrap iron to the ocean floor (and don’t tell the submarine guys I said this) you’d sooner let the water in from the bottom rather than letting air in from the top.
Still. That’s the kind of thing a man could take a great deal of professional satisfaction from.
Shipmates,
You will note, of course, the P-3 Orion that first located and then tracked the vessel, and who quite probably provided flir and film support for the RAAF Aardvark crew…..
Of course, had they slung a couple of Harpoons under the wing pylons of the P-3, there would have been no need of calling in the Aarvark to start with…..
Sigh…
Respects,
Well, yeah, Lex, but the same reductio ad absurdum applies in both cases. Swimmer plants 20-lb limpet mine on ship’s bottom. Cheap Win!
Or, guys jump out of helicopter, carry 20-lb. mine over to critical infrastructure gizmo, climb back in helicopter and the thing blows up after they’ve left. Win!
Yah I know sneaky doesn’t always work, but it sure is cheaper if it does work.
P.S. What I think I was trying to say, is that the more accurate you are with your shooting, the smaller bullets you can use. This is why everybody’s nukes got smaller, I think.
Merely letting water in isn’t enough, you have to break her back so the watertight integrity is lost. A limpet mine carried by an African swallow probably isn’t going to do much, but 2000lbs down the hawspipe or a Mk48 beneath the keel do wonders.
I’m with Lex, the crew needed to be involved, negative feedback being such an effective behavior-modification tool. Why, it works on dogs, (some) cats, pirates, and now smugglers!
– Max
So, did they ever get that magnetic under-the-keel torpedo exploder to work right? Been trying since 1920-something, y’know. Brits tried it and quit, Krauts tried it and quit, USN famously kept trying it and not quitting in the face of actual evidence from actual real combat.
Produced a classical case study of how not to do engineering.
Max-
The crew couldn’t attend, from memory they were in gaol.
No mistaking the engines or flight station of the Mighty War Pig! Concur that it would have made a much more realistic scenario for the P-3 to stand off and ‘poon the target but… as always the Air Force (even the RAAF) and the TACAIR guys take all of the fun for themselves and send the pore ol’ Orion off to take pictures of their heroics against unmanned vessels. Hey- can I cash my per diem check here?
Heh,
Per Diem check… it is to laugh
Spent many an hour on the forward magnetron cover, holding that 70mm agiflight. Used it too……
Respects,
Chief-
Down here the P-3 is RAAF too, not Navy.
The good news is that this bomb was right on the mark because it was delivered by the “team” with real steering being provided by a real WSO
As it should be……………..
Skip-
Gotta do something when you’re not reading porn
Well that was a failure.
Try this.
You know what ’s really funny? The adsense ads underneath the picture advertising “Meet gay military men.” Exactly how the computer makes that association is beyond me.
You know what’s interesting? My adsense ads talk about “meeting military singles” and “why not write here?”
Maybe it’s the cookies on your ‘puter, Skip
Well, like the title says…
There’s nothing like … Good clean fun…
Uh, I think.
It was under the F-111 web site.
Why reduce a seaworthy vessel to scrap iron? Here in the U.S., when someone is found using a boat/car/house used in drug trafficking, the authorities either sell it or put it to good use. Why wasn’t the same done here?