Page 70 - Australian Defence Magazine Feb-Mar 2023

70 AIRPOWER PILOT TRAINING SYSTEM
FEBRUARY-MARCH 2023 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
21ST CENTURY AIRCREW TRAINING
The Air 5428 program is a long-standing, multifaceted effort by Defence to build a modern aircrew training capability for the ADF, beginning in the 2000s before the Commonwealth had settled on the F-35A Lightning II as its next fighter aircraft.
EWEN LEVICK | MELBOURNE
FIRST Pass approval came in 2009, and after some delay, a tender was issued in 2013 seeking a training aircraft to support the introduction of many new aircraft into the RAAF, including the F-35As, P-8A Poseidons, and more. The industry team ‘Team 21’, chosen in 2015, comprises Lockheed Martin Australia, Pilatus Aircraft (headquartered in Switzerland) and Hawker Pacific (now owned by Jet Avia-
tion), which has provided maintenance support to Singapore’s PC-21 training capability at RAAF Base Pearce since 2006.
ABOVE: The Pilatus PC-21 replaced the PC-9/A in the pilot training role with the RAAF
The selected PC-21 aircraft replaced the PAC CT-4B Airtrainers operated by BAE Systems Australia in the basic flying training role, Pilatus PC-9/As at 2 Flying Training School at RAAF Base Pearce in the advanced flying train- ing role, and PC-9/As at the Central Flying School (CFS) at RAAF Base East Sale, the Aircraft Research and Develop- ment Unit at Edinburgh and 4 Sqn at Williamtown.
PILOT TRAINING SYSTEM
Under the program, 49 Pilatus PC-21 aircraft were deliv- ered between June 2017 and December 2019 to the RAAF – which flies them from RAAF Bases East Sale, Pearce, Edinburgh, Gingin and Williamtown – as well as a modern
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