Page 114 - Australian Defence Magazine November 2021

114 AIRPOWER
NOVEMBER 2021 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
A future Air 5077 Phase 6 project will also oversee a comprehensive mid-life upgrade of the Wedgetail’s capa- bilities in the 2025-2026 timeframe, which will see the air- craft out to its planned life of type.
The RAAF is also providing support to the Royal Air Force, as it introduces the Wedgetail as a replacement for its dwindling Boeing E-3D Sentry AEW.1 fleet in coming years. The UK announced it would acquire five Wedget- ail platforms in 2019, but this has since been reduced to just three under its Strategic Defence and Security Review 2021 (SDSR21) process. RAF crews have been converting from the Sentry to the E-7A with 2 Sqn at Williamtown as part of this process and, from an industry perspective, BDA is also closely engaged with its UK counterpart on develop- ment and sustainment work.
Perhaps more exciting for the near-term future of the Wedgetail in RAAF service are recent US media reports that the US Air Force is close to selecting the type as a replacement for its even older E-3 fleet, which has suffered from declining serviceability rates in recent years.
MULTI-ROLE TANKER
The Airbus KC-30A is based on the civil A330-200 wide-body airliner and was selected to replace the RAAF’s four Boeing 707 tankers in 2004 under Defence’s Air 5402 program.
LEFT: A 33 Sqn KC-30A refuelling 6 Squadron EA-18G Growlers during the ferry from Australia to the US for Exercise Distant Frontier 21 ahead of Exercise Red Flag 21-3
BELOW: A US Air Force E-3B Sentry and RAAF E-7A Wedgetail and AP-3C(EW) Orion aircraft on the flightline at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, USA
Today the RAAF has seven KC-30As in service with 33 Sqn at Amberley and, like the Wedgetail, it has served with distinction in the MEAO. Airbus brochure figures suggest the baseline MRTT is capable of uplifting 111 tonnes of fuel – all of which is available for offload, as the design utilises the A330’s wing and centre fuselage tanks and has no need for dedicated tanks.
Fuel can be transferred using either the hose and drogue method, utilising a Cobham 905E pod under each outer wing, or the boom and receptacle system, via an Airbus- developed fly-by-wire Advanced Refuelling Boom System (ARBS) under the aft fuselage. The KC-30A can also carry a normal complement of passengers on the main deck and the same amount of cargo as the civilian version in the underfloor cargo holds. For the air mobility mission, six of the RAAF’s aircraft are configured with a 270-seat airline interior while the seventh has a VIP interior forward of the wing and is used for long-range Special Purpose Aircraft (SPA) missions.
The RAAF has previously stated that five KC-30As can concurrently transport over one thousand passengers or ferry more than 40 F/A-18A/B Hornets across Australia. Alternatively, it has said five aircraft could fly 1,800 km from their base and offload 250 tonnes of fuel to receivers over a four-hour period.
DEFENCE
DEFENCE