Skyhawks got caught out twice in their careers, served with two different Air Arms only to be dumped by two Labour Party's. Been 18 odd years since we've had jets in New Zealand, bit of a shame
@@MegaBloggs1 we had dog fights with the Sea Harriers in 1983 after the Falklands War and beat them. The Skyhawk is more robust. F-16s would have been the best option as were already familar with their avionics, we had F-16 RADAR, RWR, HOTAS, Put into our skyhawks in 1987
@@MegaBloggs1 Our the F16 like planed before the commie labor government cancaled the order now you have no air defence and have too hope the RAAF F18 or F35 will help defense New Zealand's air space
@@Skyhawks1979 maybe, but they were sub sonic, and had half the service ceiling of our allies contemporary jets at the time. Also Australia didnt end up getting hms invincible because of the Fauklands war. And i dont know if the RAN did buy Invincible if they intended to use Sea Harriers or use the A4s on it? Invincible had a ski slope deck.
N.Z's new defense posture is to pal up with China now reject our ANZAC mates, next thing we'll have PLAN Guangzhou destroyers visiting here on a "friendly" visit
I love the Skyhawk. Greatest aircraft ever built, imo. Heinemann's hot rod! Still in service with a couple of air forces and contract organizations. Not bad for a little plane that's been in service for almost 70 years.
I lived in Nowra for a few years around the 2000's. Awesome aircraft to watch and here. The A4 was an awesome aircraft and a capability we should nener have lost
Such beautiful planes, such a powerful punch in a tiny, subsonic package, shame that the fixed-wing portion FAA of Australia was scrapped alongside HMAS Melbourne.
That old news report is a very bias and ill informed version of what the story really was. The Melbourne had to go, replacement or not. It hadn't been able to carry the Skyhawks for a while towards the end due to needing repairs. Any possible affordable replacement at the time (an Invincible Class) wouldn't have carried the Skyhawks or Trackers anyway resulting in the costly transition to a new type (the Sea Harrier). The Trackers technology was getting old so they would've needed $$ upgrades to get them into shape for reasonable coast watch work. The Skyhawks would've cost too much to operate just for target towing and fleet support. The Kiwis did get a great deal, but in the end by coming back to Nowra later on, we got an affordable 'lease in' capability and they got a good level of exposure to training with the RAN and RAAF on a more regular basis than if they had stayed in NZ. Yes Draken did buy the Skyhawks and the Macchis and operates them on contract to the US military in the adversary role.
I have no connection with australia, never been there, but I really struggle to understand why they sold them to NZ since they paid afterwards 6 million to NZ for their services. They could have done what UK did with the F-4Ks and Buccanners, so basically transfer all the A-4Gs and their 400 personnel to the RAAF.
Such a versatile little plane that consistently punches above its weight. A close friend of mine was a USMC aviator that flew both A-4s and later the AV-8 Harrier in Gulf War I. He referred to the Harrier as an air show queen that only flew as advertised when it wasn't carrying ordinance and lightly fueled compared to the rugged Skyhawk.
@@stevemarriott7984keep i .ind those were base B and C models early variants from the 60s with engines that had 20% less thrust than the current spec hawks in the 80s. Also the argentines were using them as pure bomb sleds, not fighters.
I'm watching this because of Senator John McCain passing and this was the plane he flew in during the Vietnam war. I've never heard of this story about Australia and New Zealand but wow how fascinating .
Lucky for us in Argentina that we learned a lot from the Royal Australian Navy's A4 experience. Too bad ARA 25 de Mayo had such a bad engines and the jet carrier dream only lasted for less than 2 decades
Your skyhawk pilots flew with alot of courage and tenacity in the falklands. Its a shame such a terrible goverment back home ment many lost their live for a couple of shitty islands that really dont matter that much
The HMS Invincible came to New Zealand in 1983 after the Falklands War. We sent them a welcoming party of Sky Hawks when they were off our coast. They didn't even have a chance to react, they couldn't get the Sea Harriers off the deck and we were never picked up on their radar. This was very embarrassing for them. After a week in New Zealand the Sea Harrier pilots realized the Sky Hawk could beat them in a dog fight.
@@EndTimeDreams As a former carrier sailor CV-63 plus a Tin can DDG-77. If you happen to be some random person reading this who also happens to be really thinking about Joining the Navy you don't want to go from an Aircraft Carrier then onto serving aboard a Destroyer, much better to reverse the order. The Brits were probably looking forward to half a world away from an actual combat zone. They decided they were in "Home waters". And being the chance of hostile intent here is about as likely as being an hour out from your homeports outer bouys. I don't know maybe they really went all the way with it, I don't know. Now I am curious to know if they were still in Condition Zebra or a Modified Zebra. Just in case someone has no idea what I just wrote up. Condition Zebra is the closure of all water tight bulkheads and scuttled. Modified Zebra means it's done from second deck down AND water tight bulkheads only from second deck and below. Also any that have scuttles are to be opened. And if they still had repair lockers open and only have 2-4 people at each locker not 100 or more. Or if all repair lockers were secured no pre staged damage control.
@das wright Yea the F16's, can't remember the block would have been perfect for NZ. To be 100% honest even with a 4,000Km range they still needed drop tanks to reach Australia in an emergency , so had to pretty much cross unarmed. Secondly back then only Russia had one aircraft carrier (still do) and China zero (now 2 with another on the way), so what air threat were they actually defending against at the time. There may be more of a case now to re look at it with rising China tensions.
Be no gud now, we've lost our advanced jet trainers too. Would have to buy a whole new fleet, plus get experienced pilots from overseas to train the new pilot's. Might as well do without
We should gone through with f-16s But there definately a few good options f/a-50 F-16 F-18 Gripen We just need a goverment with enough guts to bite the bullet of the intial costs
HMAS Melbourne had come to the end of her life so the government found a way to privatise part of our defence but it had to make the fleet air arm go away first and never buy another carrier again.
I'm always amazed that politics result in these illogical scenarios. I fully support a regular election cycle but it does make government very poor at long term planning. Save a dollar now to spend 5 later, etc.
All the various Australian governments have a dismal history of military equipment purchase and disposal! One should always remember, politicians don't bleed!
@@markprance6351 Appointed by US Republicans head of a Military Institute ...He said the Gulf War would end in disaster AND HE WAS RIGHT ....& he was right here... kept the Kiwi airforce going for 20 years by doing this... saved a fortune not have seperate Navy AIr Combat....
He said the Gulf War would end in disaster AND HE WAS RIGHT, kept the Kiwi airforce going for 20 years by doing this... saved a fortune not have seperate Navy AIr Combat....
I also would not encourage my son to join the navy. I served many years and watched this very demise of the fixed wing fleet air arm. God be with this country of we ever go to war again.
Same thing in the UK when the government scrapped the Sea Harrier fleet virtually overnight....always big money at play in such decisions....and we're left with a replacement which is really not up to the job as far ad reliability is concerned....disgraceful.....
Shame that the Aussies with a proud Navy aviation history, seemed was given the short stick in its naval defense. But they dont interdict themselves in world issues either though. The A4 is a great Navy plane.
This report seems very biased. HMAS Melbourne was at the end of it's life and needed to be replaced. In any event it really had limited value in supporting the defence of Australia. Even if the government did replace HMAS Melbourne with another carrier eg HMS Invincible, it wouldn't have been able to operate Skyhawks anyway. Aircraft carriers are largely a waste of money and resources (basically a modern day version of the battleship) - especially for a small country like Australia. Similarly the tracker aircraft were reaching the end of their life and nobody wanted to buy them. It doesn't change the fact that the Skyhawk was and is a great aircraft. Modern day aircraft engineers could learn a lot from it's cost-effective and no-nonsense design.
Australia is really a small country. Only Canada and Russia are larger. It has an extremely long coastline and a carrier would be an asset to defend the coastline.
@@TheEddie581 True, however in a world where resources are limited, the question is whether the huge resources (cost, manpower etc.) for a small country are better utilised for other purposes eg. more aircraft, submarines, army, cyber defence etc. Australia operating an aircraft carrier would suck huge amounts of resources away from these areas and place a huge amount of the nation's defence capability onto only one or two ships. A bit like putting all of your eggs into one basket.
The RNZAF strike wing was sucking up about a quarter of NZ's defence budget. The army and navy were starved of equipment to keep them flying. Uncle Sam wants light infantry and the NZSAS, not a token fleet of obsolescent jets like the F-16. Australia has purchased dud aircraft (F-111) and dud submarines. On the bright side, HMAS Melbourne did manage to sink two destroyers.
isnt time to get another strike wing maybe fa 50s. helen clarke was disgrace for getting rid of them and john key was also for not reinstating them. oneday maybe we will get a government who cares about defence and fund it properly and get good equipment
Richard Cordell not likely labour think it's more important to give fat slobs solo mothers an Maoris on on the dole millions rather than fund our defence force properly
We have a very similar situation in Ireland. No air defence capability and a very heavily underfunded Defence Forces thanks to subsequent governments not giving a damn about defence. I feel the pain. Also yes the FA-50 or maybe the Italian built M346 FA would be perfect for both the Irish Air Corps or the RNZAF.
We don't have fleet air arm today ... so Beasley was right, tough decsions have to be made & only Labor does them.. 2 seperate combat arms is STUPID ... selling them cheap to NZ kept their airforce going for 20 years & we got the navy training ...So old Admirals dont like to lose their empires.. BAD LUCK.. the military is NOT a game. John Howard called Beasley the best Defence Minister every.. you should take that back
You got to love the biased political garbage from both sides of the Tasman from the so-called media, a complete circus act. In NZ these jets were always portrayed as too old, too slow, a total waste of money by the Kiwi media. In Australia, in order to bash their own politicians, they portray the sale of their surplus jets to NZ as a sell-out. For the record it wasn't the "same jets" that went back to Nowra, they had new wings and massive avionics upgrades to make them semi-viable. The truth was somewhere between the two sets of media trash stories, but lets not let the truth get in the way of some good spin doctoring. What do they teach journos at university these days? Whatever it is, it makes trash American reality TV shows look good, and that's not a compliment. Just a shame that the uninformed public who deserve better get taken in by this sort of crass political commentary, rather than getting the journalism and balanced information they need.
Since its beginning that A1 Skyhawk has been my top 5 best in the United States inventory that little monster holds its own even today I was still love to see some US Marine elements use them they some bad aircraft
Please, please do it. I was a year old when we we lost the strike wing. Im nearly 20 now thats a long time of vulnerability we have endured since Clark fucked us over
@@garwhittaker3743 we now have tonnes of out of work airline pilots due to Covid. Labour govt will rule out spreading super phosphate and we’ll have even more spare pilots then.
Labor sold them. Labor is good for spending money on welfare & wasting money on non nation building projects. Labor has a history of spending tax payers on fluffy things, but always comes up short in defense spending.
I had forgotten how butt hurt Navy was about their little joke air force being disbanded. At the time the real air force had around over 100 Mirages, 30 F-111s, 30 Orions and 75 F-18s were on the way. And the navy wanted to hang on to their little jet fighters for target practice LOL
We got shafted by both parties in NZ. Labour got rid of the Skyhawks and the squadron of Aermacchi MB-339 (armed) jet trainers and cancelled the F-16 deal. Later on under the National party the Minister of Defence wanted to reactivate the Aermacchi squadron for at least some strike capability and it would have left us with trained jet pilots if they ever wanted to get some real combat aircraft again. But no National PM John Key stopped that. One PM for the liberals, one PM for the capitalists, no PM for protecting our nation.
Yes, and we scrapped our A4 skyhawk too, only ten years after Kahu upgrade, essentially with modern F16 avionics and a new fuselage at the time, to save peanuts. And to date no govt is willing to replace them, even with the current dangers.
I wonder what happened to the 28 million dollars my country paid to Australia. The 28 million dollars was probably the Aussie politician's bonus pay or their pay rises Lols
Synthetic NZ Eh, mate you got it backwards, Nz was PAID for supplying RAAF with combat aircraft to train against,as they would otherwise be assiting our P3k2 Orion in MPA. What 28 million?
F-35 is a lemon ay? What's your degree to say that, Masters of Strategic Security, or maybe an engineering degree? Are you a pilot of the F-35? All the pilots and controllers of the F-35 I know absolutely adore it! Stop being an armchair Air Marshall and do some research
First time seeing this video. We get the Skyhawks for a song and then stupid Helen Clark (NZ PM) mothballs them. Funny how these same Skyhawks are sitting in a warehouse collecting dust. No one is allow to buy them Helen Clark. First rule for selling equipment, get the buyers interested. Ask the USA government if we can sale the aircraft, then mothball them. But she don't ask the yanks and they stop the sale. Bloody brilliant. What's more of a cock up, the yanks offer us 20 F16 fighter jet on lease for another song. What does teeth less Helen Clark say, no thanks. Only takes one political leader to kill NZ defence force history.
Hi, yes just seen a video of Draken international fly them against USAF. Last I heard, there are still same sitting here in white plastic rap. Did Draken buy them all.
Theirs no need for us nowadays for a air combat wing. The expense to retrain new pilots, aircrew, and the acquisition of new jet fighters would blow our defence budget through the roof... Unless our mate President Trump wants to give us some F-18s or F-16s he's got lying around, so we can help his navy train up in Hawaii maybe? Give us a call anyway Mr President. Jacinda our youthful prime minister will be overcome with such joy when you do ring and give us free jet fighters. 👍😝😂
Lies, more lies. I was involved as my unit was in packing these aircraft into containers for shipment to Malaysia in 1990 from storage at RAAF Depot Duddo!
Darren S the Skyhawk was extremely agile, and would have had a considerable advantage at the lower speed. Hornet advantage would have need better agility at higher speeds and throttle response. Like the guy said in the video they worried about all the shot going on in the cockpit instead of focusing eyes on the opponents. That said Kiwis were excellent fast jet pilots, when NZ mothballed the Skyhawks Australia wanted the pilots for RAAF.
@ J Zoolander all good points also below 10,000 feet the Skyhawks had the better advantage, plenty of great video of kiwi pilots in mock dogfights killing f16s and f18s, the squawks thrashed them if they fought to the planes best altitude. Also so awesome low level flying video’s. Low in US terms is 500 feet, special training qualifications max low was 250, the kiwi’s 50 feet won’t be unusual, and fast mountain flying also pretty special. Scare the wits out of any US pilot.
@ J Zoolander no disrespect but let the Canadians have them we would rather have a dozen Saab Gripens. Yes the pilots I wish them well they are well looked after and paid they would never want to come back to the crap that goes on here. One of my friends who stayed here gave up all flying, won’t even go to air shows, clean break really sad to see all the work and dedication he put into his career and teaching and training pilots, turned his back on it all. Really sad.
Come on, we are on the same side for G's sake! We are ANZAC's. My Grand father was an Aussie and two of my wife's Grandfathers were Aussies. WE ARE ON THE SAME SIDE! I LOVE AUSSIE.
History says u are wrong..it was the Labor Party that made the ANZUS Alliance with the US ... The Australian Conservatives fought against it, would not do it... That the real world for you... They also said that the Gulf War would be a DISASTER.. they were right ...Liberals were losers.. Labor are actually good a Military stuff - Labor ran the country WW 1 . .. won - Labor ran the country WW 2 ...won( Mezies kicked out, could not do the job) - Labor the commies in Malaysia & Singapore (48- 62) - Told the US NOT to fight them in Vietnam..Liberals lost -Labor gave us first air to air refueling -over the horizon RADAR -Rudd committed us to the Biggest Spend in Aus history.. 12 sub. One heck of a record in the REAL WORLD...
Politicans ought to become more accountable for their deccsion The Problem is the "Public Private Partnership" has weskened Defense World Wide .all about Revenue profit and big banks big business $$
I feel your sorrow Australia because we're about to put US Marines in combat situations with no tanks and one attack helicopter Brigade les? So I understand you're back then trepidatious it's like that idiot going to be at namal said that there for Phantom didn't need a gun the day of the Gunslinger over how quickly he was proven wrong
I was on fleet staff on Melbourne/Salwart Rear Admiral Hudson wanted to throw Kim Beasley over the side. And Tracker on tarmac for 6 years Now Governor of WA who would serve in the military.
