Page 33 - Australian Defence Magazine Sep-Oct 2022

LEFT: An RAAF Super Hornet during ULTRA ZD
Exercise Diamond Storm 22, which was the culminating event of the six-month Air Warfare Instructors Course (AWIC) 22
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But the ACE also derived significant training and experience out of its support for the ADF as well.
“The training areas out here are absolutely fantastic, I was lucky enough to be out here in 2018 and the value and availability of training out here is far and above what we have home in Hawaii,” CAPT Brown added.
“Hawaii does have some challenges – operat- ing on an island chain, there’s pretty dynamic weather and terrain – but just the sheer volume of range space that’s available here is amaz- ing. Even the Mt Bundy Training Area, which is fairly small (by NT standards), is larger than we have in Hawaii, and then another 30 minutes south I have a training area that’s larger than several US states.
“So, there’s absolutely phenomenal training value out here: the terrain is austere, it’s rough and it allows us to do a lot of low-altitude tac- tics training, which is our bread and butter as assault support pilots – manoeuvring low to the terrain – and we get phenomenal training.”
Operations Officer for the ACE, Major Chris Montgomery added that the complexity of air operations during Diamond Storm also added a training element valuable to the Osprey crews operating within the Bradshaw Training Area.
“There’s a very complex air combat element happening in the sky and we have to learn to work effectively beneath that,” he said.
Speaking to ADM just before the conclu- sion of Diamond Storm 2022 – and there- fore AWIC22 – WCDR Hagstrom said he was happy with the way the complex task of course design and development was delivering the re- quired outcomes.
“We’ve had 81 Wing experts embedded with 88 Sqn when it comes to scenario design [for F-35A]. So far, we’ve been pretty on the mark and we’re reasonably happy with where we are. We’ve had a lot of support from our Tactics and Training Di- rectorate within the AWC in regard to scenario design,” WGCDR Hagstrom explained.
“We’re getting good feedback across all the communities, from the richness of the scenari- os that we’re delivering all the way down to the facilities that we’ve developed and delivered to ensure we can run the course in the manner that’s required.” ■
ADM would like to thank Squadron Leader Eamon Hamilton for his assistance with this article.
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