SYDNEY MORNING HERALD 9 OCT - AUSTRALIAN SUPER HORNET BOMBS ISLAMIC STATE TARGET IN IRAQ

A RAAF fighter has launched Australia's first attack against the Islamic State, dropping two bombs on a militant facility overnight. The strike was launched from a RAAF Super Hornet fighter. All Australian aircraft have since exited the area and returned safely to base, Defence said in a statement. The weapons dropped on the Islamic State target would either have been 500-pound GBU-12 laser-guided bombs or JDAM (joint direct attack munition) bombs which are directed by GPS and come in 500-pound and 2000-pound versions. Both types weapons have similarly high levels of accuracy with an error margin of only about one metre. The Defence statement did not say what target was hit, describing it only as a "facility" – which is significant because it suggests a more static target. Most of the RAAF combat missions are expected to focus on moving targets such as vehicles carrying Islamic State fighters. "Overnight the Australian Air Task Group operating in the Middle East attacked its first target in Iraq," the Defence statement said. "Two bombs were dropped from an F/A-18F Super Hornet on to an ISIL facility. All aircraft exited the target area safely and returned to base." It was the first time that Australian fighters have actually launched an attack, though this was the fourth combat mission flown by the Super Hornets. Defence chiefs revealed on Wednesday that Super Hornets pulled out of a potential strike on a moving Islamic State target in Iraq on Sunday night because of fears of killing civilians. The revelation from Australia's first day of combat operations underscores what is likely to be a typical pattern for coalition air missions, with Islamic State fighters adapting to bombing raids by fleeing for the safety of civilian areas when confronted by a threat from above. Chief of Joint Operations David Johnston said on Wednesday their commanders were tracking a target but employed the "red card" system – which cancels any strike – after it moved into a built-up area. "One of our [Super Hornet] packages on the first night … had an identified target which it was tracking and that particular target moved into an urban area where the risks of conducting a strike on that target increased to a point where it exceeded our expectations of collateral damage, so they discontinued the attack at that point," he said. The RAAF has now carried out three combat missions on each of the past three nights. Vice-Admiral Johnston said they would now fly such missions "on most evenings". The missions tend to be about seven hours long, with two hours flight time each way and two to three hours patrolling for targets. Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/australian-super-hornet-bombs-islamic-state-target-in-iraq-20141009-113fe9.html#ixzz3FbJs3RTL