Page 45 - Australian Defence Magazine June 2019

The new fleet of SPA aircraft have started arriving with the first Dassault Falcon 7X now in country.
June and August respectively and the Chal- lengers will be retired by the end of Octo- ber. Northrop Grumman will continue to maintain the RAAF SPA fleet, including the Falcon 7Xs.
“The selection of the Falcon 7X was based upon a comprehensive capability and finan- cial evaluation of available commercial off- the-shelf (COTS) options against approved capability needs,” AIRCDRE Kourelakos said. “The evaluation considered the total cost of ownership against the following crite- ria: production availability, airfield accessibil- ity, amenity, remote airfield operations, sup- portability and extended range operations.”
The two Boeing 737 BBJ’s will be retained until at least mid-2024 and will be upgraded with a satcom capability, under a modifica- tion program due to begin in October.
A sixth and seventh Airbus KC-30A multi-role tanker transport (MRTT) are be- ing acquired under Project Air 7403 Phase 3 and, while the sixth aircraft is already in service with 33 Sqn at Amberley, the seventh is currently having a VIP cabin fitted in Eu- rope. 33 Sqn will also operate the aircraft and it will retain a full air to air refuelling (AAR) capability but will also be used for long-haul SPA missions when required.
F-35 numbers grow
The third and fourth Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II fighters to be based in
Australia arrived at RAAF Williamtown in April, with two more to follow in August and a further pair before the end of the year.
These deliveries mark the ramp up of the first RAAF fighter squadron (3 Sqn) to transition to the fifth generation fighter from the ‘Classic’ Hornet, which is now well into a two-year verification and vali- dation (V&V) process, designed to test the aircraft’s ability to function in Australia’s unique operating environment, including the sovereign Defence IT systems.
Seventy-two F-35As are being acquired under Air 6000 Phases 2A & 2B, with Ini- tial Operational Capability (IOC) due to be declared at the end of the V&V testing period in December 2020.
Eight more Australian aircraft are currently based in the US, where they are used by the F-35 International Pilot Training Centre at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona, to train inter- national pilots, and a further two aircraft will arrive by mid-year, for a full complement of 10 RAAF jets. Fourteen RAAF students and in- structors were based at Luke in late April and in the coming months, as more aircraft are delivered to Australia from Lockheed Mar- tin’s facility in Fort Worth, Texas 3 Sqn will begin Australian-based transition training for previously-qualified fast jet pilots and No.2 Operational Conversion Unit (2 OCU) will take over the training role in the
first half of 2020.
Growler IOC
Th e R A A F ’s B o e i n g E A -1 8 G Growler Airborne Electronic At- tack (AEA) capability achieved a notable milestone on April 30, with the announcement of IOC.
Twelve aircraft were acquired un-
der Air 5349 Phase 3 during 2017,
but one aircraft was lost in a take-
off incident on exercise in the United States in January 2018 and a decision on a replace- ment aircraft has not yet been made public.
Air Force has adopted a ‘crawl, walk, run’ approach to the Growler as it has never had an airborne electronic attack capability be- fore and is standing one up from scratch, al- beit with significant co-operation from the USNavy.
Marking the IOC milestone, Chief of Air Force Air Marshal Leo Davies said the announcement represented a ‘significant achievement’ in the ADF’s efforts to im- prove joint electronic warfare capability.
“Over time, this aircraft will work with Army and Navy platforms to enhance our ability to control the electronic environ-
ment and, where necessary, deny or de- grade the electronic systems of adversaries,” AIRMSHL Davies said. “This will provide a capability edge by enhancing tactical options to reduce risks to Australian and partner maritime, land and air forces in more com- plex and high-tech conflicts of the future.”
Growler Final Operational Capabil- ity (FOC) is currently planned to follow in 2022 as the capability is further developed.
Triton, Peregrine & Poseidon – ISR capability enhancements
On the heels of the Government’s an- nouncement that it would acquire the first of at least six Northrop Grumman MQ- 4C Triton high-altitude, long-endurance (HALE) unmanned surveillance aircraft under Air 7000 Phase 1B last June, Defence Minister Christopher Pyne announced the acquisition of a second aircraft on March 27.
The original announcement covered the purchase of an initial Triton and forecast that others would follow, added as the US Navy’s entry into service program for the Triton capability made progress. At the recent Avalon Airshow, Director of Intel- ligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance and Electronic Warfare (ISREW) at RAAF Headquarters in Canberra, Group Captain Jason Lind, confirmed that although up
six aircraft will be acquired, there is scope in the 2016 Defence White Paper for a sev- enth Triton to be purchased as an attrition reserve in the future.
The first Triton is expected to arrive in mid-2023 and all six will be operational by the end of 2025. The aircraft are to be oper- ated by a yet to be decided squadron within No.92 Wing and while the RAAF’S ‘ISR centre of excellence’ will be built at Edin- burgh, the Tritons will be operated from a forward operating base at RAAF Tindal and other locations around the country.
“The Triton, which will complement our manned (Boeing) P-8A Poseidon aircraft, will significantly enhance our anti-submarine war- fare (ASW) and maritime strike capability
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“The first Triton is expected to arrive in mid-2023 and all six will be operational by the end of 2025.”