Our Air Operation Ends !

Islamic  State has been vanquished in Iraq and no longer holds any territory to house its proclaimed "Caliphate ".  It has been reduced to a shadowy movement which still controls adherents scattered throughout the world and who are capable of delivering terror attacks similar to the car driven into pedestrians this week in Melbourne.

That is still unclear.  The man behind the wheel was a former Afghan refugee who suffers both mental illness and is drug addicted.  There is no clear link to Islamic State although his comments to police rambled on about Allah and oppressed Muslims.  Fortunately, the impact failed to kill and it is likely that all the victims may fully recover.

The Australian involvement in this Middle East war has been limited to about eight hundred drawn from our armed services.  " Special Forces " personnel have advised and trained the Iraqi army and the six air force F-18-18A Hornet fighter aircraft have required a force of three hundred to service the aircraft and prepare them for missions during the three years they have served in this theatre of war.

Islamic State learned to fear the attack capability of these aircraft.  The use of precision munitions meant they could take out a specific target and during their involvement they were in the air for 35,753 hours, delivering 2400 bombs on 2750 bombing runs.   They were supported by a tanker aircraft to deliver in-flight refuelling and a " Wedge tail " surveillance aircraft to locate and identify specific targets.

This was the epitome of modern warfare.  We are a small nation on the world military scene and it is important that we maintain the right technology to defend a continent with a small population. In particular, we rely on both our navy and air force to project power to cover our vast coastline and detect any aggressor moving into this southern hemisphere.

Modern military aircraft are expensive and this involvement in the Middle East delivered a lesson. These militants were able to quickly conquer a large swathe of territory, but the use of a small number of advanced aircraft inflicted unsustainable losses and tipped the balance of power.  The actual combat involved brought the Australian air force to a higher readiness degree than the normal training exercises could possibly deliver.

This reliance on " lone wolf " civilian attacks seems a desperate measure by Islamic State.  Their world is shrinking and they have been defeated on key battlegrounds.  Terror on the streets of our cities may be the price we have to pay in exchange for a more peaceful world in the traditional trouble spots.  We need to develop new skills to make street attacks more difficult.