Page 30 - Australian Defence Magazine May-June 2020
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       30 EW AIR555
MAY/JUNE 2020 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
   He also confirmed that the MC-55As would be based at RAAF Edinburgh alongside RAAF Surveillance and Re- sponse Group P-8A Poseidon maritime surveillance aircraft and the yet-to-be-delivered MQ-4C Triton and the MQ-9B Sky Guardian unmanned aircraft systems.
The decision to order four rather than five G550s followed a force structure review “and our force planning indicates that will be sufficient at the moment”, said GPCAPT Lind.
of subsequent crew following delivery of the first MC-55A. “Obviously we’ve got some other ISR platforms that are multi-intelligence to some degree, particularly Growler, and we’re taking lessons from them. We’re also working with the US to understand how we might transition this capability into service and get it operating as soon as pos-
sible,” GPCAPT Lind said to ADM.
“I think we have to train our people as best we can and
give them a fair amount of latitude. Once we give this air- craft to some motivated operators they’ll be getting it to do things which we haven’t really thought of yet.”
Rather than separating ISR and EW capabilities as often happened, the intention was to be more rather than less flex- ible and the MC-55A would be mixing and merging informa- tion from other platforms and its own sensors to produce a 5th generation effect.
“This translates into providing an enhanced network force with sophisticated cooperative engagement and situ- ational awareness so we can bring to bear joint effects as precisely and as accurately as we possible,” GPCAPT Lind said. “Peregrine is a force multiplier in a kind of similar but different way to Wedgetail – it’s got lots of brain power and it has the ability to orchestrate the fight, conventional or otherwise, in a contested and congested EW environment.
“We have operators on the aircraft who will be able to make rapid decisions, we’ll also have operators on the ground. We’ll also be able to tap into other resources and capabilities across the Joint Force, and the Distributed
ABOVE: Replacing part of the Orion capability, Peregrine will be able to act in concert with other 5th Gen platforms like Wedgetail, JSF, and P8As.
  “ONCE WE GIVE THIS AIRCRAFT TO SOME MOTIVATED OPERATORS THEY’LL BE GETTING IT TO DO THINGS WHICH WE HAVEN’T REALLY THOUGHT OF YET.”
“It doesn’t mean that if we decide the Joint Force has a need for more in the future we couldn’t go back to gov- ernment and seek them, but at the moment it’s four,” he commented.
The first MC-55A will ar- rive in Australia in late 2022 or early 2023. Final delivery
  will be “in the mid-20s” and Final Operating Capability (FOC) will be achieved “in mid-decade”, he stated.
OLD AND NEW PLATFORMS
The RAAF’s two remaining AP-3C Orions, upgraded by L3 with sophisticated EW systems in the late 1990s and early 2000s, will continue in their role as a specialist Electronic Warfare Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (EWISR) unit operated by 10 Squadron at RAAF Edin- burgh until the MC-55As become operational.
MC-55A test and evaluation and some familiarisation activities will take place in the US and an initial cadre of RAAF personnel will be trained there prior to delivery of the first aircraft. Full mission simulators and training sys- tems will be delivered to support Australian-based training
   















































































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