Page 19 - Australian Defence Magazine May-June 2020

MAY/JUNE 2020 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
DEFENCE BUSINESS HORNETS 19
The subsequent purchase of the Boeing EA-18G Growler Electronic Attack aircraft resulted in all RAAF Super Hor- nets being consolidated within 1 Sqn in November 2016 and a further Super Hornet rotation to the Middle East occurred between May 2017 and January 2018.
CURRENT OPERATIONS
Today all 24 aircraft remain in service, primarily with 1 Sqn, but a current trial has recently seen six jets transferred to the newly formed 82 Wing Training Flight at Amberley to oversee training of pilots and Air Combat Officers.
Besides the Okra deployments, RAAF Hornets are regu- lar participants at high-end air combat exercises such as the ‘Red Flag’ series in the United States and a number of regional exercises, such as the Bersama series in Malaysia and Pitch Black in the Northern Territory.
Commanding Officer of 1 Sqn, Wing Commander Rick Peapell said that six aircraft had recently returned from Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, home to the ‘Red Flag’ ex- ercises. He told ADM the Australian contingent performed
‘very well’ against a range of adversaries in the air and so- phisticated threats on the ground. The Red Flag exercise, held in January, saw Australian crews operating with and against 5th generation capabilities such as US Air Force (F-35A) and RAF (F-35B) Joint strike fighters, 4th genera- tion RAF Typhoons and US Air Force F-15 Eagles and F-16 Fighting Falcons.
“The squadron did a fantastic job and the performance of the team was outstanding, to the point where, between the two Australian squadrons, we actually took out most of the awards,” WGCDR Peapell said. “We were used pretty much in every role the jet is capable of. The Super Hornet truly is multi-role, and it does it all extremely well.”
At the time of writing in early April, 1 Sqn was com- mencing preparations for its mid-year deployment to Dar- win to participate in Pitch Black 2020, where the crews
ABOVE: The Super Hornet fleet has worked hard for over 10 years now.