Defence Update

At a recent briefing, the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Ray Funnell, supported by senior officers, said the Ready Reserve concept for the Australian Defence Force would be directly applicable for air field defence “inside the wire”. While the plan is in its formative stages, it envisages plugging a current gap in air field defence at forward bases like Learmonth tyVA), Curtin near Derby (WA), Darwin (NT), Tindal near Katherine (NT) and eventually a proposed new “bare” base, Scherger, east of Weipa on the Cape York Peninsula (Old). After the Force Structure Review (FSR) endorsement was announced in Parliament by the Defence Minister, Senator Robert Ray, on 30 May, AM Funnell nominated Air Commodore Dave Rogers to head a GAS Planning Team to initiate the proposals accepted in the FSR, the Wrigley Inter Departmental Committee (IDC), theDefence Logistics Redevelopment Project and the Defence Regional Support Review.

Rogers is to report to the Chief of Air Staff by 10 September on the best way of ensuring full coordination and integration of the processes and implementation of a number of recommendations that have flowed from the various reviews and analysis. The latest recommendations then will be examined by Funnell and other senior RAAF officers.

Currently the RAAF is made up of three main components – the General Reserve, the Specialist Reserve and the Active Reserve. Basically they will remain, with the addition of a Ready Reserve component.

The General Reserve, numbering about 3,500, comprises mostly former permanent Air Force personnel under the retiring age of 55. They have no training commitments, but are available for call out if the Government of the day chooses to do that. These personnel then would require intensive refresher training.

The Specialist Reserve (about 350) are people like lawyers, medical practitioners, dentists, chaplains and media/public relations people who have a seven days a year commitment, but are not required full time except in the event of an emergency.

The Active Reserve, which has been reorganised and now comes under the Air Commander, Glenbrook, west of Sydney, fly with the nine City Squadrons. They are made up of 65% former permanent Air Force and 35% civilians, and are required to serve at least 32 days a year. Most, however, serve about 50 days annually.

The Active Reserve includes an Air Crew Group and a Staff Group. The air crew personnel mostly fly C-130 Hercules and Caribou transports, and P3C Orion maritime reconnaissance planes. This will continue.

The Staff Group are used to plug holes in headquarters, undertake special studies and can be used in the way governments or private industry use consultants. The Active Reserve is basically on operational Reserve. Under the Ready Reserve concept for the Air Force, the current Active Reserve Squadrons, the air field defence unit, and an air crew contingency system would make up that requirement of being available for combat. The aircrew contingency system will provide pilots and other air crew to support permanent officers and NCOs in flying C-130s, P-3s and Caribous. However, pilots and navigators who have acquired the skills and experience of flying the RAAF’s fast jets-the F-111Cs and the F/A-18 Hornets-will not undergo an extensive period of refresher training.

It was agreed with the Chiefsof Staff Committee that because fast jet air crews needed long-term training to maintain their skills and knowledge of the equipment, it was not realistic for such people to undertake long periods of training. Instead they will go to various bases for about a week, undertake simulator training, and fly say twice or three times during that period (refer Reece p. 4). It was accepted that, bearing in mind Australia’s geostrategic circumstances, under RAAF readiness requirements fast jet air crew may have to be called in under longer lead times than would apply to training say Army soldiers or Navy seamen. It would take four to six months to bring former RAAF F-111 and F/A-18 air crew back up to speed, though this is considerably less than relying upon graduates from 2 FTS at Pearce to take the place of ‘lost’ fast jet air crew.

Another factor in the equation was that it costs a lot of money for flying hours to operate the fast jets. Some suggest something like $7,000 an hour for an F/A-18 Hornet. “Flying hours for the fast jets are extremely expensive,” AM Funnell explained. “So we see little point in giving Reserve air crews a full conversion course and maintaining their skills that we may or may not need. ”

He said there was no need to have these people called out and operating tomorrow. If an emergency was on the horizon, there would be time to bring them back in and give the Air Force the required surge capability. So the RAAF is sounding out former F-111 and F/A-18 air crews, who have been in the permanent Air Force within the past six years, to join the Ready Reserve. If necessary they could be brought up to speed in 90 days.

The proposal of a seven day camp is therefore not basically to maintain the skills but to keep abreast of the aircraft once a year through simulator training and a few flights. “So we’re out there recruiting people who have left in the last six years”, Funnell said. He did not think rank structure was important in the scheme of things. If former RAAF pilots and other air crew were called up for duty, it may well be that some Wing Commanders were filling slots usually occupied by Flight Lieutenants. Air Commodore Rogers explained that whereas the current Active Reserve was 1,550 strong, a longer term objective was to boost this to 2,000.

And the RAAF’s Ready Reserve component of 450, which after five years would be about the strength of the air defence unit, could grow to about 1,000. Musterings are also to be available for other than the air defence regiment. The other side of the coin is that the permanent Air Force strength, under the FSR, has to drop 4,500 personnel to just under 16,000 by the end of this century.