Defence Update

Better ESM equipments needed for the task of detecting and analysing electronic emissions. The latest warfare developments dictate that ‘active’ transmissions must be kept to a minimum to avoid disclosing to an enemy vital information. As senior officers of the Maritime Patrol Group covered by No. 92 Wing’s P-3C Orions at Edinburgh explained, the best way targets can be classified accurately is to use sophisticated equipment in a passive rather than active manner. New profiling radar and modern ESM would permit computer comparisons from an established library of targets and thus aid the operator in his analysis of data.

An Orion can reach any part of Australia in four hours. The 20 aircraft in No. 10 and No. 11 Squadrons are the guardians of Australia’s territorial waters and our sea lines of communications. They also carry out an important role by way of regional Defence cooperation. At any one time two are detached to Butterworth air base, Malaysia. Apart from regular surveillance of the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea, RAAF Orions are carrying out increased patrolling of the South Pacific, thus aiding many island nations through active surveillance of their waters.

Under fairly recent RAAF Operational Command changes, the senior Air Force Officer at Edinburgh has become the Maritime Patrol Group Commander and Deputy Maritime Commander to Rear Admiral Peter Sinclair who is the Navy’s Fleet Commander. Air Commodore Tom O’Brien, a highly experienced maritime pilot, recently shifted from Edinburgh to become Chief of Staff at Operational Command, Penrith and has been replaced by Air Commodore Les Fischer who previously was from RAAF Townsville.

Edinburgh is made up of 2000 personnel, 10% of whom are officers. Apart from No. 92 Wing, it is home for the Air Force’s crack Aircraft Research and Development Unit (ARDU), commanded by a top test pilot, Group Captain Bob Richardson. ARDU’s Flight Test Squadron contains 12 test pilots, including the CO, and two specialist navigators. No. 92 Wing, commanded by Group Captain Al Page, is made up of the two Orion squadrons, No. 292 Squadron which provides the training and support elements, and No. 492 Maintenance Squadron, which handles the technical support.

The wing’s major roles are maritime surveillance and reconnaissance, ASW and Search and Rescue (SAR). Mine lay- ing, support for the Navy and maritime strike are other roles. Last year No. 11 Squadron completed re-equipping with P-3C models, having flown P-3B Orions when it switched from operating Neptunes in 1968. Attack and search stores used by the Orions are the Harpoon anti-ship missiles, homing torpedoes, mines and a range of sonobuoys. Much of the work is carried out at extremely low levels, whether it be simulated attacks against shipping or submarines. The sonobuoys, including the Australian-developed Barra sonobuoy, basically are listening devices made up from an expendable array of hydrophones and electronics within a cylinder. They are used to detect noise generated by submarines and are dropped in predetermined patterns at various depths.

The P-3Cs can carry up to 84 sonobuoys. It may drop a pattern of say 32 or 16 sonobuoys at a time to prosecute a suspected submarine. These buoys could be four or five miles apart so the area being monitored could stretch to 90 nautical miles by 60 nautical miles.

In its ASW mode, Orion’s job, sometimes aided by initial intelligence, is to get what RAAF aircrews call the ‘first sniff’ of an enemy submarine. The sonobuoys basically are a number of microphones programmed to pick ‘signatures’ from beneath the water and transmit them for identification. The new equipment being sought is designed to greatly improve this process. The Barra system is considered the highest ‘state-of-the-art’ in detecting and tracking the most modern, stealthy submarines. They are made in Australia by Sonobuoys Australia which is a partnership between AWA and Plessey Australia. At present Barry sonobuoys are used by the RAAF and the RAF, but there is a prospect of sales to the US Navy which would open up a potentially large export market.

The Barra buoy is part of an Anglo-Australian joint development of an acoustic processor and an associated advanced sonobuoy. The British-built AQS-901 processing equipment is used in the RAAF P-3Cs and the RAF Mk2 Nimrods. The Defence Research Centre has been closely involved in the development of the Barra buoy.

The P-3Cs, which were derived from the basic Lockheed Electra airliner, are equipped with advanced navigational and communications systems, forward and rear-looking search radars, ESM to detect other radars, magnetic anomaly detectors (MAD) to pinpoint submerged submarines and an infra-red surveillance system for night vision that resembles a television set. A central digital computer runs these systems and the weapons.

The Orion squadrons are in turn supported by a ground support facility known as the CMI (which stands for Compilation, Mission Support and Integration) training facility. It is housed in a self-contained modular cabin complex which is transportable.

The CMI Facility handles flight analysis and pre-briefing of crews.

No. 92 Wing also has an operational simulator and an operational flight trainer. The two squadrons fly 4000 hours a year solely on maritime surveillance. This is apart from carrying out other tasks. About 10% of the wing’s operations involve night flying. The Infra-Red Detection System (IRDS) is used for night surveillance. ASW training mostly is carried out during RĂN exercises, but also includes flying in exercises co-ordinated by the US Navy. ASW crews from the RAAF, RAF, Royal New Zea- land Air Force and the Canadian Air Force compete every year for the Fincastle Trophy.

Seven Orions usually are in the air at any one time. Edinburgh is the RAAF’s busiest base, operating around the clock 365 days of the year. There are two maintenance shifts a day, plus a special group that can be called upon at any time. A duty air crew is on standby between 10pm and 5am. In a typical situation, two P-3Cs would be stationed at Butterworth with one of them in the air. Two other Orions would be operating out of Townsville and two out of Nowra, NSW. Two more would be involved in local flying from Edinburgh which includes training new crews. One Orion would be patrolling in the South-West Pacific or going to or returning from a mission there.

All this means that the wing’s resources are tightly stretched. There are only 14 air crews available when 16 crews are deemed desirable. But manpower ceilings and the exploding resignation rate of pilots and other skilled personnel is making it difficult to find the extra crews needed to ease the strain. Operation of the P-3Cs requires not only highly skilled pilots, navigators and flight engineers, but also specialist Airborne Electronic Analysts (AEAs) who operate the radar, IRDS, ESM and acoustic equipment mostly arrayed on large screens in the air-conditioned main body of the aircraft.

A vital regional strategic role for the RAAF Orions, apart from the national maritime surveillance task of territorial waters to provide fisheries, quarantine and flora/fauna protection, covers patrolling well out into the Indian Ocean, staging through Cocos Islands and Diego Garcia. There is a regular monitoring of the international shipping route, known as the Iron Highway, running from Sri Lanka to Sumatra and up into the South China Sea. It is no secret that RAAF Orion photographs of Russian naval vessels and other shipping assist the Western intelligence network in maintaining a continuous profile of shipping using the Indian Ocean and sea routes in South-East Asia. The monitoring includes Soviet naval vessels such as the aircraft carrier Minsk, the big nuclear powered cruiser, Kirov and supply ships, the Ivan Rogov and Alexander Nicholaev. The RAAF also has film of other ships like the light cruiser, the Udaloy and the fast frigate, the Sovremennyy. The Soviet space vehicle ‘splash down’ south of the Cocos Islands several years ago was photographed by a RAAF Orion. The photographs are understood to have been used to brief US Defence Secretary Caspar Weinberger in Washington less than 24 hours later.

The South Pacific patrols, which have been increased this year, cover the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Western Samoa, Tonga and the Cook Islands and did include Fiji before the recent crisis. Island nation government representatives are taken on these patrols to give them on the spot knowledge of activities in their territorial seas. These patrols average seven days each and have been increased from five to ten annually.

The surveillance flights monitoring Australian territorial waters are carried out on a random basis and usually are of up to 10 hours duration. Stopovers are made at airfields such as Nowra, Townsville. Darwin and Pearce. Few Australians would see these P-3C aircraft carrying out their variety of duties; but they are the true watchdogs of our territorial seas and beyond.