Page 76 - Australian Defence Magazine November 2021

76 AIRPOWER
NOVEMBER 2021 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
enhancing the efficacy of the system regionally. There is also the possibility that other airborne assets, for example the P-8A Poseidon, can also become a future CEC node.
What this means is that in the event of a conflict, ADF air and naval assets plugged into the CEC, either as a node or a sensor, can feed data into the wider CEC network to work to engage a hostile target, vastly improving interoper- ability with allies and partners.
TANKERS
The RAAF has made a considerable effort to partner with friendly nations to expand its mid-air refuelling interop- erability – both as a refueller and a receiver – and these
LEFT: A Republic of Singapore Air Force F-16D over a hazy Australian outback during a recent multi-lateral Pitch Black exercise
include several regional nations. The effort began even be- fore the KC-30A’s boom system was declared operational, when RAAF aircraft in the Middle East supporting Op- eration Okra began refuelling coalition aircraft with the hose-and-drogue method in 2014.
The first non-Australian receiver aircraft to be cleared were French Rafales and American Classic and Super Hornets and, soon after the boom became operational, the RAAF started clearing coalition aircraft for boom refuelling. The first re- gional type to obtain clearance was the Lockheed-Martin F-16D+ of the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) in October 2016, followed by Indian Sukhoi Su-30MKIs and Ma- laysian F/A-18D Classic Hornets at Exercise Pitch Black 2018.
The RAAF also had plans to conduct refuelling trials with RSAF F-15s and Japanese Mitsubishi F-2s although this has been delayed due to COVID-19. Airbus had devel- oped boom control software specifically for refuelling the F-15 in conjunction with Singapore’s Defence Science and Technology Agency and released it to all MRTT users as Update III Loop 6.1 after certification in 2018.
It was the RAAF that had in fact discovered issues be-
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