Page 58 - Australian Defence Magazine November 2022

58 COMMUNICATIONS C4I
NOVEMBER 2022 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
have been some changes, I think it's more about how we integrate with them and pass information to them that allows them to do their job better. I think that's the advantage of having a Joint Strike Fighter out there.”
Each constituted Wedgetail crew includes an Air Battle Manager (ABM) from the Royal Australian Navy, given the air defence role Navy has, particularly in recent times with the introduction of the Aegis-equipped Hobart-class destroyers. Despite some earlier trials, there has not been a requirement for an Army representative to be part of each crew until now. However, during the recent deployment to the Northern Territory, some conceptual work around ground-based air defence was undertaken.
The deployed Wedgetail participated in an exercise with Australian and US ground forces at RAAF Base Curtin, the RAAF’s bare base located near Derby in north west Australia. Included in this was some Ground Based Air Defence (GBAD) trials which will be used to inform Defence’s forthcoming Air 6502 Phase 1 (Ground Based Medium Range Air Defence) program.
ABOVE: A Royal Air Force exchange pilot from No. 2 Squadron at RAAF Tindal during Pitch Black 2022
cause the Australians have been flying this jet for about 15 years now,” he said. “I’ll be taking that corporate knowledge back with us back the US in order to more quickly facilitate standing up our own fifth generation C2 airborne platform, which we're purchasing from Boeing, and using it on our own fleet in order to replace the aging E-3s that we have on station now.”
MAJ Dunn said that he is set to return to the US at the end of his posting in the 2024-2025 timeframe and will assist the USAF in the standing up of its first Wedgetail squadron from around 2027.
Commenting on the differences between the recently up- graded E-3G Sentry in the USAF and the Wedgetail, he said the Windows-based software in the former was easier to use, but learning to operate the 5th generation E-7 – with its MESA surveillance radar – is straightforward.
“It's a quick turnaround. on learning the system or at least I've found that to be true,” MAJ Dunn explained. “I think right now we're trying to cut it down to a couple months to transition to a whole new airframe. And it's a whole new crew concept. It's much lighter on the crew complement, and so getting the operators from the E-3G to learn how the system itself operates, the ‘green’ part of the 737 aircraft - having to do all the closing the doors, doing the walk round etc is a bit different. But with Boeing Defence Australia’s assistance, learning how to use the system itself is pretty fluid, it's not terribly different.
“We're looking to onboard some more individuals over the next couple of years in order to, again build that cadre that we're going to take back with us to produce our own squadron, across the USAF.”
However, SQNLDR Paull noted that the postings aren’t only to give RAF and USAF crews knowledge of Wedgetail and its systems, but to share their extensive airborne early warning and control operational knowledge with their Aus- tralian counterparts.
“We have an integrated crew model, so the RAF and USAF are flying as part of the Australian crew,” he ex- plained. “We want to integrate as much as possible to take from them their wider experience doing tactical C2.” ■
“WORKING WITH THE 5TH GENERATION F-35 HAS NOT SIGNIFICANTLY CHANGED THE WAY WEDGETAIL CREWS GO ABOUT BUSINESS”
“We actually did some really good work with the Army last week in the Air Defence Artillery Coordination Officer role, and that worked quite well, we took them flying. What we found however is, similar to the other roles we've done with them, they're better off just receiving our picture on the ground and then working off that,” SQNLDR
Paull said during the second week of Pitch Black 2022. “There's definitely potential and our concept does allow for that. We're still working through how this process would work exactly but we've done some good work.
“The air defence artillery officer is working on Air 6502 project, as part of that integration and that went really well, we had some really good movement forward. We also had some American artillery officers here with us as well and they were quite impressed by what we achieved in a week.”
CROSS-POLLINATION
A number of personnel, including pilots, Air Battle Manag- ers and an Engineer Officer, from the Royal Air Force (RAF), United States Air Force (USAF) and US Navy are currently posted to 2 Sqn to gain experience on the Wedgetail prior to the RAF and USAF receiving their own aircraft.
Speaking with ADM at RAAF Base Tindal during the second (Large Force Employment) week of Pitch Black 2022, USAF Major Christopher Dunn explained the rea- son for his posting to the Wedgetail. Prior to the posting, MAJ Dunn was an ABM on the USAF’s E-3 Sentry and has served at Kadena Air Force Base on Okinawa (Japan), as well as at a number of locations in the US.
“They've sent me out here to collect the knowledge [and] use the information that 2 Squadron has already established, be-
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