90 Years Young

And the 90th anniversary also affords the opportunity to reflect upon the status of the RAAF today. Current Chief of Air Force, Air Marshal Mark Binskin, likes to call the RAAF the “world’s best small air force” (see our interview with CAF from p40 of this issue), and he’s probably right.

That is, of course, an impossible claim to test – perhaps Singapore and Israel would object – but looking at the evidence the RAAF is in an enviable position, given the quality of its people and its current order of battle.

Capability wise, the RAAF is perhaps the best equipped it has been since the 1970s (when it could boast then new F-111s, Mirages, C-130s and P-3s).

Today it boasts arguably the world’s most effective multirole fighter in the AESA radar equipped Super Hornet, still effective upgraded ‘classic’ Hornets, Wedgetail AEW&C aircraft, modern C-17 and C‑130J transports, upgraded AP‑3C surveillance platforms, and has KC-30 tankers (see p54) due for delivery imminently. Then there is the JORN over-the-horizonradar system, the Vigilare command and control system, the network of ‘bare bones’ bases across Australia’s north, and the critical skills and capabilities of Combat Support Group.

And for all the pressures of the Strategic Reform Program with its goal to squeeze $20 billion in savings across the Defence organisation over 10 years, that money will be reinvested in purchasing new capabilities, and all three of Australia’s military arms have benefited from the average three per cent real growth in funding that has been in place for a decade now.

There are always competing budgetary pressures in any air force, but when CAF nominates the challenge of introducing so many new capabilities in a such a short timeframe – as has been happening in recent times with the retirements of the F-111, Caribou and 707, and the introductions of the Super Hornet, Wedgetail, KC-30 and King Air – as his most pressing issue, you know that the RAAF is very well placed compared to the air forces of New Zealand, Canada, Europe (in particular Britain at the moment), and even the mighty US Air Force.

But it is the effectiveness of the RAAF’s people in utilising those leading edge technologies that really make it the “world’s best small air force”. The RAAF’s high quality of training has long been recognised, but not since the early 1970s and Australia’s withdrawal from Vietnam has the RAAF had as much combat and operational experience in its ranks as it does today.

For the best part of two decades, through until the East Timor deployment in 1999, the RAAF did not deploy on any operations. But since then it has been deployed near constantly, from Timor, to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Many RAAF personnel have been on multiple deployments, and many of its star ranked officers have served in leadership positions in the COAC (Combined Air and Space Operations Center) in Qatar in the Middle East.

That experience is key in getting the most out of the RAAF’s aircraft and systems, for seeing and experiencing first hand world’s best practice in tactics and concepts of operations. Those experiences feed the training and acquisition processes in a way that the theoretical understanding of airpower issues cannot.

At 90, the Air Force looks quite sprightly.

Publishing Expansion

It is an exciting time for Australian Aviation, with parent company Phantom Media acquiring Australia’s leading defence business publications – Australian Defence Business Review (ADBR) magazine and the weekly Defence Industry & Aerospace Report (DIAR. com) e-newsletter.

The new titles, previously published by Canberra based Business Communications Group (Busicom), provide high value-added reporting, analysis and commentary of Australian new military capability development and acquisition affairs and national security issues. So they are a natural fit with Australian Aviation, and our long tradition of defence aviation coverage and analysis.

The acquisition of the Busicom titles will become the cornerstone of an expanded Phantom Media presence across the aviation, aerospace, defence and national security spheres, and provides Phantom Media with greater scale and business diversity.

We’re looking forward to the challenge.