Page 14 - Australian Defence Magazine April 2023

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NEWS REVIEW
INDUSTRY UPDATE
APRIL 2023 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
REGIONAL OUTLOOK
MIKE YEO | MELBOURNE
LEFT: A USAF Global Hawk BELOW: A ROKAF F-35A
pore think-tank that the deployment was due to a short-notice requirement that Sin- gapore quickly approved.
He added that the aircraft has left Sin- gapore having completed its deployment.
Singapore has previously hosted the rotational deployment of US Navy and RAAF P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol/ surveillance aircraft, as well as RAAF AP- 3C(EW) Orion Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance aircraft.
Flight tracking data of the RAAF P-8A suggests it was flying missions to the southern part of the South China Sea dur- ing its deployment to Singapore, which took place in late 2021 and lasted approxi- mately one month.
INDONESIA RECEIVES FIRST C-130J
Lockheed Martin has delivered the first of five C-130J Hercules airlifters ordered by Indonesia.
The aircraft, bearing the serial A-1339, was handed over in a ceremony on 21 Feb- ruary at the aircraft manufacturer’s facili- ties at Marietta in Georgia.
The aircraft was subsequently flown to Indonesia, arriving at Halim-Perdanaku- suma airbase in Jakarta on 6 March, ac- cording to the country’s Defence Ministry.
The base is where the Indonesian Air Force’s current fleet of older C-130B/Hs are based. These are assigned to Skadron Udara 31 (31 Squadron), which currently operates approximately 25 aircraft.
The remaining four C-130Js will be deliv- ered by early 2024 and will boost Indone- sia’s airlift capability. The country is made up of 17,000 islands and is regularly affect- ed by natural disasters, making airlift a vital component of the country’s military. ■
SOUTH KOREA TO BUY SM-6, MORE F-35AS
South Korea will acquire the Raytheon SM-6 missile for air- and ballistic-missile defence and more Lockheed Martin F-35A Lighting II Joint Strike Fighters, according to its Defense Acquisitions Program Admin- istration (DAPA).
The agency said that the country’s De- fense Project Promotion Committee ap- proved the first of a two-phase US$874.8m plan to acquire the Raytheon SM-6 air de- fence missile to equip a second batch of its KDX-III Aegis-equipped destroyers.
The missiles will be used for air- and ballistic missile defence on the 8,200-ton ships with the acquisition program due to be completed by 2031.
The committee also approved plans to acquire more Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II Joint Strike Fighters that will see the jets delivered by 2028.
DAPA did not state how many more F- 35As will be acquired under the latest plan, although South Korea won State Depart- ment approval for 60 F-35As in 2013 and has already ordered 40 aircraft thus far.
Separately, the US ally also said it was looking into the feasibility of acquiring a 50,000 ton aircraft carrier to operate a na- valised version of the indigenous KF-21 fighter jet, with a decision to choose between this or a smaller vessel by the end of this year.
It had previously flagged the possible ac- quisition of a domestically built 30,000-ton carrier for operating the Short Take Off and Vertical Landing (STOVL) F-35B variant.
SINGAPORE HOSTS USAF GLOBAL HAWK DEPLOYMENT
A US Air Force Northrop-Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned aircraft has un- dertaken a short-term deployment to Changi East air base in Singapore.
The aircraft, which is used for persistent reconnaissance missions by the USAF, undertook the deployment “as part of the 1990 Memorandum of Understanding Re- garding US Use of Facilities in Singapore (‘1990 MoU’). The 1990 MoU facilitates US forces’ access to Singapore’s air and naval bases on a rotational basis”, accord- ing to Singapore’s Defence Ministry.
Sources in Singapore said the unmanned aircraft was deployed to Singapore in mid-January and was observed at the base in Febru- ary and early March, flying almost exclusively at night during its stay in Singapore.
The reason for the Global Hawk’s deployment to Singapore is not known, although the head of the US Indo-Pacific Command Admiral John Aquilino said dur- ing a lecture organised by a Singa-
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