18 February 2025
Hornet pilots strapped into their aircraft in temperatures often exceeding 50 degrees before taking off for eight-and-a-half-hour sorties.
Loaded with bombs, they faced a long flight up the Persian Gulf and an in-air refuel before facing an enemy known for beheadings, mass rape and slavery.
“There was no moral ambiguity, their heinous behaviour clearly justified the use of lethal force,” Air Commodore Philip Gordon, one of the Air Task Group’s commanders, said.
Known as Daesh, they’d taken advantage of a strife-torn Iraq to conquer large areas of the country and eastern Syria in 2014.
The group’s leader declared himself Caliph – claiming authority over the world’s Muslims.
Outraged Muslim countries disagreed and the UN declared Daesh a terrorist organisation.
The world responded by forming a global coalition to destroy them, including a multinational force of combat aircraft striking terrorist ground targets.
Australia’s F/A-18F Super Hornets arrived at Al Minhad Air Base in the United Arab Emirates in September 2014, before relocating to Al Dhafra Air Base near Abu Dhabi.
Super Hornets, and later Classic Hornets, flew ground attack missions to support Iraqis fighting Daesh.
One of the pilots was Air Commodore Gordon, Commander of the Air Task Group from July 2016 to February 2017.
One of his missions was bombing a Daesh mortar team attacking Iraqi forces.
'There was no moral ambiguity, their heinous behaviour clearly justified the use of lethal force.'
The risk of being shot down was low; targets were already identified and authorised so pilots didn’t think much about choosing the right one, but they grappled with a different type of pressure.
“You’re worried about, ‘have I punched in all the numbers correctly? Have I done everything right? Is this bomb going to go where it’s supposed to?’,” Air Commodore Gordon said.
A pilot would watch the target after impact, assess the damage, then radio a report back to ground controllers.
“Were the objectives achieved? Were the people shooting mortars neutralised or were they still firing,” Air Commodore Gordon said.
While there could be an immediate sense of relief, pilots then had to think about refuelling and what their next target would be.
“When you were flying back down the Gulf, the sun’s going down, the fatigue is starting to kick in, the adrenalin is subsiding, and you think, ‘OK, we’re in the home stretch’,” he said.
“But there is a lot still to do before you are safely on the ground. Climbing out of the jet you do feel a sense of relief.”
Air Commodore Gordon said while pilots generally had no moral issues dropping bombs to kill the enemy – having trained all their careers for it – he knew other personnel might feel conflicted.
He reassured them that things were black and white and it was not an ambiguous conflict.
“It was very clear cut how evil Daesh were through their words and actions,” he said.
Because a lot of the task group’s work was close-air support, Air Commodore Gordon said it was as much about protecting friendly forces as it was ending an enemy’s life.
Time from Australian jets receiving a strike request to getting bombs away was measured in single-digit minutes.
This included approval from the task group’s targeting cell, with an Australian target engagement authority holding the final decision.
“There were times when the US asked us to engage something and we said, ‘We’ve had a look and we can’t because of this reason’, and they’ve gone, ‘Actually we agree with you, we won’t go ahead with that target’,” Air Commodore Gordon said.
'If they had Australians on station, they felt like they had a reliable ally up there.'
Air Task Group commanders also had to balance what the Americans wanted and what risk Australian leaders would accept, according to Air Commodore Gordon.
“If we were too risk averse and didn’t want to drop a bomb, even though the action was legal, proportional and legitimate, then that can be incredibly damaging to how our contribution was perceived by the US and our coalition partners, especially if friendly troops were engaged with the enemy and taking losses,” he said.
While many Air Task Group commanders were Hornet pilots, Air Commodore Gordon was the only commander to fly one in combat during Operation Okra – deploying just after finishing command of 81 Wing, having completed the full operational workup.
He may be the only air commodore to captain a single-seat fighter in combat since World War 2.
During Okra, this let him speak with authority when fielding questions from higher up.
“If I was questioned about why our pilots were doing it a certain way, I could say, ‘When I was dropping bombs over Iraq, this is what I found to be the case’,” Air Commodore Gordon.
“It let me calibrate anyone who thought it was easy or we could simply do it better.”
Hornets and numerous crews rotated through theatre until Australia’s final strike mission in January 2018.
They’d flown more than 2700 sorties over 21,000 flying hours.
By 2019 Deash was reduced to a desert pocket and insurgent cells, having lost most of its Iraqi and Syrian territory.
During his command, Air Commodore Gordon received regular praise from US personnel in the strike cell in Erbil saying how much they liked working with Kelpie – the Hornet’s call sign.
“If they had Australians on station, they felt like they had a reliable ally up there,” he said.
