Page 128 - Australian Defence Magazine November 2021

128 AIRPOWER
NOVEMBER 2021 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
PEREGRINE’S VIGIL
Formally revealed in the 2016 Defence White Paper, Proj- ect Air 555 is part of a wider requirement to improve elec- tronic support capabilities across all domains. The asso- ciated Defence Integrated Investment Program included $2billion - $3billion over 2017-24 for the acquisition of up to five long-range electronic warfare support aircraft.
In June 2017 the US State Department approved the potential sale to Australia of five Gulfstream G550 business jets. In July 2018 the US Department of Defence awarded L3 Technologies a US$83 million contract for the upgrade through the US Air Force’s secretive 645th Aero- nautical Systems Group, also known as ‘Big Safari’, of two RAAF G550s to the MC-55A Peregrine electronic support configuration– although no official confirmation of the aircraft’s acquisition had yet to emerge from Canberra.
LEFT: A rendition of a Northrop Grumman MQ-4C Triton in RAAF markings
The aircraft itself has a range of 12,000 km, a long- range cruise speed of 553 knots and a maximum cruise altitude of 51,000 ft, ensuring an excellent perspective for its sensors. Endurance is around 12 hours.
Delivery of the first Peregrine to the RAAF after a comprehensive test campaign is anticipated in early 2023 and final delivery in late 2025. A target for Final Operating Capability (FOC) has not been disclosed.
Group Captain Jason Lind, Director of ISR at RAAF Headquarters, told ADM that rather than separating ISR and EW capabilities as often happened, the inten- tion was to be more rather than less flexible and the MC-55A would be mixing and merging information
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 possible,” he explained. “Per- egrine 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’ll 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 Ground Station - Australia (DGS-AUS) as an intelligence node will be in the thick of that as well.”
And finally, in March 2019, the Commonwealth announced that four G550s would be acquired for $2.46 billion under Air 555, describ- ing Peregrine as a new airborne EW capability that would provide a criti- cal link between ADF platforms.
“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”
THE COMPLETE PICTURE
Formed at RAAF Edinburgh in 2014, DGS-AUS is staffed by air intelli- gence officers working alongside geo- spatial and SIGINT specialists.
The facility is intended to ingest information from numerous Austra- lian and allied imagery and SIGINT assets and combine it with strategic reference material from the Austra-
While the Peregrine’s mission ca-
pabilities are closely guarded, the air-
craft is likely to be able to monitor,
record and classify a wide portion of
the microwave and radio wave end of the electromagnetic spectrum, from mobile phone and Wi-Fi networks to large integrated air defence systems.
lian intelligence community to improve commanders’ situational awareness.
DGS-AUS was formally established as an RAAF unit in January 2020 as part of the Information Warfare Direc- torate under the Air Warfare Centre at RAAF Edinburgh.
“Certainly, we’re moving into a different age where we need to augment as much of our capability as we can with systems on the ground by remotely process- ing some of that information but that won’t take from the ability to do things on board the aircraft,” GPCAPT Lind commented.
“The MC-55A can be a conductor depending on what it’s doing at the time. At other times it’s more likely to be the drum that beats with a relentless flow of information that goes to all parts of the Joint Force.” ■
External modifications to accommodate mission equip- ment feature a ‘canoe’ fairing under the forward fuselage, an upper fuselage satellite communications antenna, a rear tailcone fairing housing an integrated electro-magnetic/ infrared turret, and an antenna fairing on the top of the vertical stabiliser.
The MC-55A has two pilots. The number of onboard mission operators has not been disclosed, although it is reportedly sufficient to handle a significant portion of any operation while airborne (The Israeli Air Force’s Eitam G550-based airborne early warning and control aircraft is understood to accommodate six operator consoles).
NORTHROP GRUMMAN