Page 74 - AA 2018_09

A 38SQN King Air flies past
Townsville’s Castle Hill.
defence

like Pitch Black, Hamel, Southern “Interestingly, when the King Air
Katipo, Talisman Sabre, Bersama came across from Army, we picked up
Shield and Bersama Lima has seen a few roles that we hadn’t done. One
38SQN utilised to move personnel of those was imagery acquisition, so
around the exercise area, act as an camera survey work to produce maps,”
enemy aircraft and even conduct mock he said.
bombing runs to train joint terminal “Another capability we picked up
attack controllers in New Zealand. was the base station repeater, which is
There has been close cooperation essentially a comms relay.”
with Army’s Townsville-based 3rd The squadron’s ISTAR capability
Brigade and Cairns-based 51st has been another interesting addition
Battalion, Far North Queensland in recent years. While exact details are
Regiment (51 FNQR), which also hard to come by given its classified
operates throughout Cape York, the nature, squadron members seemed
Gulf and the Torres Strait. confident it would achieve final
“Units from 3rd Brigade have operating capability this year.
quite a lot of exercise interaction with “We’ve done a whole bunch of trial
PNG. So while they need a larger work with that particular capability 38SQN’s FLTLT Stephen Maunder RAAF East Sale-based 32 Squadron,
asset to move a company of people and it’s kicking goals,” SQNLDR demonstrates the King Air’s which also operates the King Air, in
up there for instance, there’s all those Plenty said. systems. michael serenc addition to its primary function of
smaller activities beforehand, like “Our progress has been moving in providing a platform for training air
reconnaissance or a command liaison, leaps and bounds this year. We’ve got combat officers with 1 Flying Training
that we support,” SQNLDR Plenty to the point where we’ve got the Army School.
said. ready to move into the next phase of
“It’s similar with 51FNQR all its development.” Accelerated progression
through Cape York, the Torres Strait WGCDR Ward said the King Air’s One beneficial by-product from
and Gulf country. Again, pretty much manned ISTAR platform was an 38SQN’s operation of the King Air,
everywhere they operate we can get advantage in a complex battlespace which it flew as a two-crew operation,
in and out of. We’ve helped them environment. has been the ability to develop the
out with moving people around for “Instead of being able to push experience of junior pilots bound for
recruiting drives or in and out of a drone around the sky, you’ve got bigger platforms within Air Mobility
training activities.” someone you can talk to and actually Group (AMG).
SQNLDR Plenty said the King Air outline specific information. That’s my With its modern Pro Line 21
itself had evolved as a platform in its view of it,” he said. integrated avionics system, the King
eight years with the squadron. That capability will transfer to Air 350 has allowed for a smoother

74 AUSTRALIAN AVIATION