Iwanted to do this model, and this particular aircraft for a number of reasons. It was part of the most significant RAN deployment into the Indian Ocean since WWII. Most significant both in terms of numbers of ships and the length of the deployment......five RAN ships were present....Melbourne, Perth, Derwent, Supply, Stalwart and Otama. At various times the Task Group was supported by RNZN and US ships. The deployment lasted from beginning of September through to the end of December of 1980.
It was recorded in history as a "show the flag" operation....until recently. The Australian government has finally approved the issue of a service medal for the ships complements of this deployment, belatedly recognizing the difficulties that were faced at that time. The TG was sent into the theatre as a reassurance to the Pakistanis, mostly, who at that time were being subjected to a lot of pressure by the Soviets, as their offe4nsive and occupation went fom bad to worse, and the CIA continued to pour weapons into Afghanistan, to support the mujhadeen fighting in that region . Our job was to provide at least moral support to the Pakistanis, and if the Soviets did start shooting, to ensure the security of the sea approaches to the region.
We knew that things were serious when the training ammunition was replaced with live stuff.
From a very early point the Soviets made it very clear that they intended to challenge us. We were constantly under close screen by at least two ships, usually built around a missile armed cruiser, several destroyers , an amphibious command ship, and at least three subs. From almost the beginning we were being shadowed by a Kotlin class and a Petya class DDG/frigate. Ther were also numbers of Bear LR maritime recon aircraft , which kept our A-4s busy in the AD role. This threat made the pilots miserable on numerous occasions. The pilots were forced to spend many hours strapped and ready in the cockpits, configured as I have, ready at a moment to launch and effect an interception, before the bogey can close to effective missile range. This was the first time I think that the need for AWACs was accepted.
But this aircraft was important also because its loss was a direct contributing factor in the early decommissioning of Melbourne. Melbournes catapult was failing by 1980, and was scheduled to undergo a major refit at the end of 1981. However the loss of two A-4s on the same deployment, prompted a grounding order to be issued in early 1981, and this in turn led to her early demise.....she could not operate as a carrier until the catapult was fixed , but this required a big amount of cash to fix the problem.
It was about this time that Melbourne acquired the nickname "Little M" as juxtaposition to the "Big E" The Enterprise was the biggest carrier iin the world, ehilst Melbourne was the smallest. The two ships often deployed togt