Surveillance & Response

On any given day, SRG’s efforts might be directed to a SAR flight in the Southern Ocean, using Jindalee to monitor air movements hundreds of kilometres to the north, deploying a tactical radar in remote scrubland or helping direct aid flights in the midst of a distant humanitarian crisis.

Recent milestones seen by SRG include the attainment of FOC for the Wedgetail, the conversion of Australia’s first P-8A pilot and the signing of an MoU between the RAAF and Airservices covering the operation of Heron UAS in civil airspace.

SRG is also engaged in the active implementation of the tenets enunciated by Plan Jericho. Outlined by outgoing CAF, AIRMSHL Geoff Brown, Jericho seeks to capitalise on the information sharing and networking opportunities afforded by platforms recently or shortly to be introduced to the ADF. SRG is vital to Jericho’s realisation and perhaps not surprisingly, it is Wedgetail that dominates the cover of the Air Force’s recently released booklet on the subject.

View From The Top

SRG was created from the merger of two groups – Surveillance and Control and Maritime Patrol – and is currently headquartered at RAAF Williamtown.

It is comprised of four constituent wings. No 41WG is responsible for homeland and deployed air defence, No 42WG for airborne early warning and control, No 44WG for air traffic control and No 92WG for maritime operations.

41WG directs the training and operations of 3 Control and Reporting Unit (3CRU) and the Surveillance and Control Training Unit (SACTU) at RAAF Williamtown, along with Darwin-based 114 Mobile Control and Reporting Unit (114MCRU) and the recently renamed 1 Remote Sensor Unit (1RSU) at RAAF Edinburgh.

42WG occupies a purpose-built secure facility at RAAF Williamtown, and delivers AEW&C with six Boeing Wedgetails operated by 2SQN. At present, 2SQN maintains one aircraft on deployment in the Middle East as part of the Australian government’s contribution to the war against Islamic State.

44WG, with its headquarters at RAAF Williamtown, provides the ADF with air traffic control at its 11 air bases across Australia. It has two subordinate squadrons, 452SQN at RAAF Darwin and 453SQN at Williamtown.

92WG has two operational squadrons (10 and 11SQNs) and a training squadron (292SQN), all based at RAAF Edinburgh and operating the AP- 3C Orion. 92WG has also recently taken command of the Heron UAS capability based at RAAF Amberley. Currently, the wing is preparing to transition to the Boeing P-8A Poseidon, but still acts as the ADF’s ‘first responder’ to crises or incidents in the region and beyond.

Commanding these extensive, and far flung, components of the FEG is

How can we exploit all of the information that’s available to us? AIRCDRE WESTWOODAIRCDRE

Chris Westwood, who brings to the job a lifetime of experience in air battle management with 41WG.

“When I look at the evolution of the air battle management construct in Australia, 41, 42 and 44WGs, I see three key milestones. The very first was the creation of JORN, when that came on line operationally in 1992.

That had the effect of removing the shutters and inviting our people to look very broadly. It redefined the concept of wide area surveillance. To our organisation, it took us out of point defence, that is, classic Battle of Britain, pushing aircraft around the sky, into knowing what’s out there, so we can pick and choose what we engage,” explains AIRCDRE Westwood.

“The second was the creation of Eastroc (Eastern Region Operations Centre) as the Air Force’s tactical data hub, where we can bring streams of information, and, via the Vigilare C2 system, create a standing national air picture from which you can pick and choose again. It’s one of the best systems on the planet in terms of battlespace management.

“The third is Wedgetail. ” AIRCDRE Westwood’s chief of staff, GPCAPT David Hombsch explained how Eastroc aids the battlespace awareness essential to the defence of Australia. “It’s about the ability to export a common picture to the warfighter. Eastroc’s part in that puzzle is land, air and in the future, space and to be able to deliver that situational awareness to the warfighter.

Not only to P-8, but Wedgetail or Triton but higher HQ, AOC, but those executing dynamic targeting. They’re relying on that common picture which is integrated here at Eastroc. With the P-8, it gives us a much better picture for us to work from and you will see that being the enabler for other combat elements. 92WG with its torpedo armed P-8s, and Air Combat Group with the JSF and Growler and Super Hornet will all be reliant on that picture to be able to operate effectively. ”As the Duke of Wellington pithily observed, the whole art of war consists in getting at what is on the other side of the hill. In 2015, the necessity of a coherent, up to the minute picture of an adversary’s intentions or disposition is no less important.

“Our drive here is to make sure we get the very best battlespace picture we can,” AIRCDRE Westwood stated. “In the back of our mind is the question, ‘how can we exploit all of the information that’s available to us, how do we turn that into battlespace awareness?’. ”

E-7a Wedgetail

Dominating the entrance to the large headquarters of 42WG is a GAF Canberra on static display, resplendent in 2SQN colours. Inside the building, a sweeping vista of the squadron’s flightline sees three Wedgetails awaiting the day’s tasking in support of collocated squadrons of Hornets and Hawks or other ADF assets further afield.

42WG oversees a single operational squadron of six aircraft. Officer Commanding 42WG GPCAPT Antony Martin explained the logic of this structure: “It was a conscious decision when we were introducing the new Wedgetail capability. We wanted to let the squadron get on and get its head around the flying of the aircraft part, so then bringing the wing in as the buffer to the higher level HQ, to deal with more strategic issues, deal with the Systems Program Office on the sustainment side of the house and to deal with the planning.

“I think now it’s worked out really well and given the nature of this as a strategic asset and the type of mission that it flies, and how it goes all around the world, I think the wing and the squadron is a really good construct. It’s not a big wing, and we work like one big unit. At the wing, we focus on forward planning, dealing with the SPO for budget and sustainment issues. We deal with HQ SRG, and up to Air Command. ” The squadron and wing recently achieved a landmark in Wedgetail operations with the declaration of the type’s FOC – final operational capability – signifying that from physical aircraft to logistics, management, sustainment, facilities and training, the E-7A is now fully operational and able to support ongoing operations.

Of no less significance will be the clearance of the Wedgetail to tank from 33SQN’s KC-30, trials of which are currently underway. According to 2SQN CO, WGCDR Chris Martin: “It will give us an air-to-air refuelling capability that we can rely on to maintain our proficiency and currency. At the moment, we rely on the Republic of Singapore Air Force to provide us with that capability – they’re quite happy to support us because we are the only large aircraft that connects to their tanker. They have their F-16s and F-15s, but we are the only large aircraft connecting, so they get some good training benefit out of it.

“Once KC-30 is online and running, it will allow us to support an 82WG tasking off the coast of Brisbane. We can go there, support a tasking, tank, come back to the area off Williamtown for 81WG – 3 or 77SQNs or 2OCU – and land after an eight or 10 hour mission. That’s what Wedgetail is designed to do. ”

Ap-3c Orion

92WG, based at RAAF Edinburgh, is currently in the throes of transitioning to the Boeing P-8A while at the same time continuing to undertake a heavy operational and training commitment with the ageing AP-3C.

The E-7A is now fully operational and able to support ongoing operations.

Australian Aviation’s visit to RAAF Edinburgh found the flightline virtually bereft of Orions save for four undergoing periodic maintenance in 10 and 11SQNs’ cavernous hangars.

10SQN CO WGCDR Jason Begley explained that his aircraft were deployed far and wide: “I’ve got people up in Butterworth, an aircraft still in Clarke AFB about to redeploy to Australia, and on any given day 10SQN will be operating off the east coast with the Navy, west coast with the Navy, out of Darwin doing border protection and fisheries activities and routine maritime surveillance further abroad. We’re also engaged with Operation Solania in the south-west Pacific in support of our regional neighbours, or further north, as mentioned, in Butterworth in Operation Gateway, performing routine maritime surveillance. ” With so many aircraft deployed, 92WG finds itself oftentimes responding first, amongst the ADF, to developing situations in the region. Its AP-3C Orions were the first Australian assets committed to the search for the doomed airliner MH370, and was quickly dispatched to Vanuatu in the wake of the devastating Cyclone Pam. As WGCDR Begley says of his squadron’s constant deployment schedule, “Many say that one of the best thing about 92WG is that we get to go away and deploy. And you ask them the worst thing, they’ll say ‘we go and deploy’. ” The introduction of the P-8A and the unmanned MQ-4C Triton will see 92WG at the very cusp of the warfare’s new information age.

“Some could argue that P-8 is Jericho for 92WG. Because what the P-8 brings in the way the system is networked, it’s moving into the next stage of Link 16 instead of Link 11 and the advances in technology that allow connectivity. So, we’re going from a maritime platform [the AP-3C] that’s primarily HF-based, or has narrowband satcom, to platforms that have a wider satcom capability, more data throughput and greater connectivity, from us to all the way back to the air and space centre at Joint Operations Command,” says WGCDR Begley. And when bedded down, these new platforms, capable of collecting and disseminating vast amounts of data, will stand ready to play their part in the realisation of Plan Jericho.

“You look across SRG as a whole, you’ve got the OTHR, microwave radar systems, including the deployable ones with 114 and 3CRU, you’ve got Wedgetail and Heron and its eventual replacement, AP-3C, P-8A and Triton, all of the different sensors that those assets bring together we can network and produce in one recognised battlespace picture, which can show what’s occurring on the land using our electro-optics, what’s happening in the air or on the ocean based on radar or subsurface acoustic sensors, and in the near future, what is happening in space. So, it’s bringing genuine air and space power from an ISR and battlespace awareness perspective and bringing it to its full maturity. ”

Heron

The IAI Heron, leased from Canadian company MDA, is the newest fixedwing addition to SRG, transferring from Air Combat Group in 2013. Heron performed over 27,000 hours of ISR tasking in support of Australian and coalition forces in Afghanistan and paving the way for more advanced unmanned aerial systems.

Australian Aviation visited Woomera to witness the type’s operator, 5 Flight, put Heron through its paces for the visiting Airworthiness Board before the type deploys to Rockhampton as part of Exercise Talisman Sabre (this will represent the first time the aircraft has flown outside of restricted military airspace in Australia). Supporting the training at Woomera were six technical support personnel from MDA, who loaded the Heron airframe into a 30ft shipping container and trucked it to South Australia from RAAF Amberley.

Adjacent to Woomera’s imposing hangars sit a shipping container housing the ground control station (GCS) and ground transmitter that relays pilots’ control inputs via line of sight datalink or satellite relay.

Heron is operated by two flightcrew, a payload operator who controls the onboard EO sensors and a qualified pilot who is referred to as the air vehicle operator (in the case AA’s visit, a King Air pilot).

To underscore Air Force’s commitment to safety, 5 Flight draws on one ofthe most qualified pilots in the Air Force to ensure incident-free flying.

“There’ll always be an aircrew guy who has a significant amount of experience. In this case, it’s ex-F-111 aircrew SQNLDR Phil Parsons who was detachment commander in the Middle East and is only one of two pilots in the Air Force to be both a QFI and FCI,” said 5 Flight’s Flight Commander SQNLDR Simon Longley.

“To further mitigate our flying operations we have a spotter on the ATC tower and he’ll sit there with a radio to maintain a direct link to the GCS, and he’ll do final checks, see if there’s anything on the runway. That’s how we’ll do it when we deploy to Rockhampton. ” An interesting safety feature of the Heron is its response to a lost datalink from the GCS. If datalink cannot be regained, the aircraft is programmed to fly to a predetermined point that is deconflicted with other airspace users and circle until its fuel supply is no greater than 40kg. It then executes an autonomous landing to the operating airfield.

To Infinity And Beyond

Another key element of SRG’s capability is also based at RAAF Edinburgh, the Group’s effective second HQ. It is the recently renamed 1 Remote Sensor Unit (1RSU), formerly 1 Radar Surveillance Unit.

1RSU is responsible for the management of Australia’s Jindalee Operational Radar Network (JORN), which has three over-the-horizon radars at Laverton in WA, Alice Springs, NT and Longreach in Queensland. By refracting HF radio waves through the ionosphere, these radars can monitor vast swathes up to 3,000km to Australia’s north. Data is then relayed to the JORN Coordination Centre (JCC) at RAAF Edinburgh, which, after processing, is then fed into the regional air picture assembled in Eastroc at RAAF Williamtown.

WGCDR Chris Robson, CO of 1RSU outlined how JORN fits into the suite of surveillance capabilities operated by SRG. “We’re tasked by our parent wing, 41WG, on behalf of Joint Operation Command. We spend the majority of our time tracking aircraft. We track objects down to a Hawk-sized aircraft and we also can track surface vessels down the size of a patrol boat. The radar does not work as a windscreen wiper, rather we program it to search using tiles – we can turn off a task 400km off the east coast to look at something 800km on the west coast in seconds. ” According to WGCDR Robson, JORN earns its keep as part of SRG’s ‘system of systems’ by providing a clear picture of activity in Australia’s distant approaches. As implied, it is also designed to complement airborne ISR platforms operated by the ADF.

“They have the capability of carrying out very different roles at very different times. With Wedgetail, whether it’s direct support of fighter aircraft, close support to personnel on the ground, that’s not something that OTH radar does. However, OTHR is complementary to all our systems, AP‑3C, P-8, E-7A, plus our ships, and is able to give that initial warning at long range. The result is that we have that persistence without the costs of having an airframe flying and performing that role. ”Along with the unit’s name change comes a new mission: to search the heavens and catalogue the more than 23,000 pieces of space junk swirling above the earth. Enabling this effort will be a C-band radar and the acquisition of a space surveillance telescope (a world first for this technology) that can peer 30,000km into space. Based at the RAN’s Harold E Holt facility at Exmouth, WA, WGCDR Robson explained why Australia had moved to acquire this capability.

“To a certain degree everything we do today relies on space capability, whether it’s the military using it for munitions and communications, or in civilian life, air traffic management and anything to do with timing relies on space. So any activity that happens in space, and any areas that could cause problems for those spacecraft, we have to know about it. From our perspective, it’s our first step in working with the US in contributing to the wider space surveillance role. ”

44WG

Headquartered at RAAF Williamtown, 44WG provides the ADF with organic air traffic control services at 11 air bases around the country. The wing also provides, with its joint battlefield airspace controllers (JBACs), tactical control of forward airfields, battlefield aviation and other airspace activity, both within Australia and for operational deployments overseas, most notably in East Timor and Afghanistan.

WGCDR Ruth Elsley is commanding officer of 44WG headquarters, and like other parts of SRG has personnel on operations in far flung locales, to say nothing of a full dance card at home.

“Currently, we have people in the Middle East and Afghanistan. There are also two JBACs in Sudan, working with the UN. Back home, we have 11 flights around Australia providing air base air traffic services, which helps SRG and the rest of Air Force to raise, train and sustain. I have tactical operations personnel preparing JBACs to deploy to airspace control positions for Exercise Talisman Sabre, and the wing is also providing additional personnel in Darwin and Tindal to handle the expected increase in air traffic for the exercise. We’re also prepping for the battlefield airspace operations course (BAOC) at Williamtown, which teaches the battlefield side of air traffic control. On top of that, we’re working with 5 Flight and Airservices to facilitate the flying of UASs [in civil airspace] and getting procedures into place for that. We also continue to work closely with Navy, where we have five JBACs currently assigned to the Navy’s new Canberra class LHDs. ” WGCDR Elsley nominated the wing’s involvement with Project AIR 5431, which will see the harmonisation of the civilian and military airspace management systems under OneSky, as the most far reaching of the wing’s current endeavours. “It’s a phenomenal jump from the Australian Defence Air Traffic System (ADATS) to the new system,OneSky. As part of AIR 5431 we’re getting new fixed radars and a new deployable system and we’re building a lot of new infrastructure on greenfield sites, and looking to 2017-23 for all of our systems to come into service. At the moment civil and military controllers operate on two different systems, and OneSky will see us moving to a single system.

We’ll still have military control services and airspace but OneSky will make transferring aircraft between military and civil controllers much easier to accomplish. We’ll be the first system in the world specifically designed to meet both civil and military control requirements. ” WGDCR Elsley pointed out that the new radars acquired as part of AIR 5431, and operated by the 44WG, will help support 41WG by providing additional radar coverage needed for the RAP – recognised air picture – and its controlling duties.

41WG

The central nervous system of Australia’s air defence system is 41WG’s Boeing Vigilare system, which produces, via over 200 inputs, a comprehensive RAP showing all air activity over Australia and its immediate region. Operators, based at Eastroc in the secure Regional Correlation Centre (RCC) at RAAF Williamtown or Northroc at RAAF Tindal, can pass surveillance information and instructions to aircraft operating across Australia.

The RAP is assembled at a secure facility within RAAF Williamtown by personnel from 3 Control and Reporting Unit (3CRU) using feeds from ground-based radars, Wedgetail, JORN and other platforms.

Acting CO of 3CRU WGCDR Stuart Gray describes his unit’s mission: “In short, we provide situational and battlespace awareness to HQ Joint Operations Command and Air and Space Operations Centre (AOC).

Our mission is to prepare for, conduct and sustain fixed and deployable operations as the airspace surveillance and battlespace management in support of national homeland defence. We protect Australia and its mainland, we do that using air defence radar, TPS-77, we use air traffic sensors and other feeds from 1RSU’s OTHR feeds and other intel feeds to compile a recognised air picture, so we can show our HQ where all the aircraft are, specifically military aircraft and other aircraft that we’re interested in, and the civilian community, making sure they’re behaving themselves and that we can react to any situation. ” “Our other component is to provide a response – we control aircraft and our air assets to intercept and identify and coerce other aircraft, if required, whether in a wartime scenario or domestic air policing scenario, as part of national homeland defence. ” Currently, Boeing is two years into a $66. 7 million contract to provide enhanced support services for the rapidly maturing Vigilare. “Without Vigilare, SRG would struggle to get enough information to its weapons platforms and to the wider air force,” WGCDR Gray stated.

“Without the C2 (command and control) information, the input and output we provide, commanders wouldn’t be able to make their decisions and platforms would be reliant on their organic sensors. An aircraft radar is only so big, whereas Vigilare gives us coverage over a massive area. The system is very complex, the number of sensor and data feeds coming in is huge – civilian flight plan systems, air traffic systems, our military systems, the intelligence feeds as well, plus operators that manually input information. We also link with Navy, with land forces, with foreign forces. ”

Feeling Tipsy

41WG’s four TPS-77 planar phased array radars are field deployable and as such, 3CRU and 114MCRU maintain a number of trucks able to traverse difficult terrain. Radars, antenna arrays and a satellite communications link and supporting equipment have, for example, been deployed to Brisbane in support of the G20 summit and to Kempsey Showgrounds to provide 200km radar coverage for east coast air defence exercises.

SACTU

Providing SRG with the agile minds required to think in four dimensions is the job of the Surveillance and Control Training Unit (SACTU), based at RAAF Williamtown. With a constant roar of fast jets taking off nearby, SACTU offers a learning environment that reminds students of their future role in delivering the pointy end of air power to the ADF.

SQNLDR Vicky Bezuidenhout is the commanding officer of the unit, and defined its mission as “developing, delivering and improvingoperator and technical training to meet 41WG’s requirements. We conduct air battle management and air surveillance operator training, and communications electronic technician training for 41WG. ” In addition to technical training courses in radar, communications, satcom, vehicle maintenance and radar mechanics, SACTU provides 18 different courses for air combat officers, including training in air battle management, a specialisation open to officers, and 10 courses for airmen hoping to qualify as airspace surveillance operators (ASOPs). In practice, ASOPs perform the majority of surveillance activities, identifying the air picture and sending that picture to JOC, while ABM-qualified ACOs control air assets and coordinate air to air engagements.

At the conclusion of ACO ABM basic training, SQNLDR Bezuidenhout explained how some ACOs get to secure a coveted seat aboard Wedgetail: “We sit a posting board where 42WG and 41WG will look at capability and who needs how many people, and we will also look at student preference, and we will then determine who goes to 41WG and 42WG. ” SACTU also runs the highly regarded fighter combat controller course, a six month, biennial course run in conjunction with 2OCU’s fighter combat instructor course. It sees air combat officers graduate as FCCs, schooled in advanced fighter tactics and weapons employment, and possessed of the dynamic thinking required to choreograph complex, fluid engagements involving varied air assets such as tankers, fighters and AWACs. Once graduated, FCCs are posted to 3CRU, 114MCRU or back to SACTU itself.

FCCs are also employed on Wedgetail crews.

Foremost Sentinel

Surveillance and Response is tasked with monitoring everything from submerged submarines to satellites and anything airborne in between. Its 2,300 personnel and contractors do so with radars deployed on the back of trucks, from remote sites hewn into the Australian outback or from the rapidly responsive Wedgetail or from a 30-year-old AP-3C flown by a 23-year-old pilot.

“This FEG is on station now, operating 24/7,” AIRCDRE Chris Westwood attests. “We have our peace time task, providing information for the day’s security around Australia. In wartime, we provide information to make sure people who go into harm’s way do it right. ” AIRCDRE Westwood is proudly of the view that his FEG is, in capability terms, the most diverse in the Air Force, commanding personnel from RAAF Edinburgh to Darwin, from RAAF Williamtown to Exmouth, WA and beyond.

“When people say what does SRG do, I say we have four pillars. We’re an operationally-focused FEG, 365 days a year. We invest a lot to make sure we raise, train and sustain our force, we do a lot of capability realisation, we work closely with various organisations including AFHQ to receive new capability and influence what shape that capability will be by the time it gets to us.

“And like most organisations, we have a governance pillar that’s very important – it’s not just about budgeting and personnel, it’s about having core values that are important to Air Force. We are an embracing and values-based organisation. That’s my contract to the Chief of Air Force. ”

Flight Of The Wedgetail

Australian Aviation was the first media organisation invited to take part on a Wedgetail flight, which was conducted in the vast eastern range of restricted airspace that extends 130 nautical miles over the ocean to the east of RAAF Base Williamtown.

After a 6:00am rise, your correspondent is taken to 2SQN HQ and, after surrendering his phone to a no-nonsense security guard at the front desk, is led down a hallway boasting numerous paintings and framed photographs depicting the squadron’s remarkable near century of existence (in which it has been established and disestablished no fewer than four times). Of particular note in the foyer is the striking portrait of a 2SQN Mk 20 Canberra, A84-220, being shot down by a SAM over the Vietnamese countryside in 1975, the action depicting the brilliant but lethal flash of the frag- HE warhead that downed the aircraft, but not before the successful ejection of its two crew, who would later be rescued by a US Army chopper.

There is, however, a briefing to attend. This is conducted in a large, windowless briefing room, dominated by a huge table around which the aircraft’s crew gather. In sequence, various crew members stand to address the room on particulars of the upcoming flight – the stated intent of the mission (training and procedures), weather, proposed track in and out of Williamtown, and all of it littered with impenetrable military acronyms delivered with the customary insouciance of operational aircrew.

Then to the flightline loomed over by 2SQN’s purpose-built hangars, equipped with bespoke scaffolding needed to service the Wedgetail and its Top Hat radar. OC 42WG, GPCAPT Antony Martin, gives Australian Aviation a guided tour of the E-7A’s exterior, explaining the various functions of its many antennae while pointing out the bulges of the Wedgetail’s LAIRCM self-protection suite that, though depriving the aircraft of the clean lines possessed by its 737 BBJ forebear, leaves no one in doubt that this is a fully functioning piece of military hardware.

After a posed crew shot, the crew emplane, entering via the door immediately aft of the cockpit, while talking loudly over the whine of the aircraft’s APU. Wedgetail crews stay together and exhibit an esprit de corps peculiar to those who a enjoy a demanding, and in demand, posting.

Inside, one sees two rows of consoles, keyboards and high back chairs, which the crew settle into in a whirl of chatter and clank of harnesses (all crew are dressed in survival gear in case of ditching.

Note, crew. ) Preflight takes some time, during which GPCAPT Martin conducts a guided tour of the aircraft’s comfortable interior. Past the console stations is a well-appointed crew rest area, a small galley and food storage pantry boasting catering that shames anything found on the Wedgetail’s civvy 737 cousins, befitting its long-endurance mission. Beyond the crew rest area and through a door is the remarkable sight of the computing power, in racks, that processes the radar signal of the Wedgetail’s airborne MESA radar. Of particular interest is the extensive internal structural strengthening of the rear fuselage to accommodate the seven metre long radar’s considerable heft. With preflight complete, the door is now locked and the crew turn their seats backwards for takeoff. In the cockpit, the Wedgetail’s pilot flying, using the callsign ‘Mitchell’ and in command of a $300 million aircraft while not three years out of 2FTS, requests clearance from the JBAC in Williamtown’s tower control for permission to take off. Peering through the E-7A’s HUD, he accelerates down Williamtown’s 2,440m long runway and rotates in what seems no time at all.

The aircraft then climbs steadily, tracking east and is soon over water. Once operational altitude is reached, the flightcrew engage the autopilot, have a coffee and content themselves with monitoring their instruments between sips and short bursts of conversation.

In the back, the crew of nine airborne electronic analysts, air combat officers and navy fighter controllers, all with headsets, get to work. The ready bonhomie of the pre-takeoff group photo has been replaced by the pared down language demanded in operational flying. While peering intently at their screens they monitor the civilian and commercial air traffic that makes its way over NSW, their headings and flight numbers displayed clearly on the flat screens of each console. The mission commander, who has ultimate authority over today’s mission, roves the aisle ready to direct or advise the crew as the aircraft establishes a radar and sensor picture which is then relayed back to 41WG at Eastroc some 100km behind us at RAAF Williamtown.

At the conclusion of this phase of the flight, the aircraft prepares to return to base but not before conducting ‘non normal procedures training’. Specifically, this involves practising subduing an onboard fire at the rear of the aircraft. A crew member alerts the mission commander to the presence of ‘smoke’ in the rear section of the aircraft in the equipment bay. After confirmation, attempts are made to battle the steadily worsening ‘fire’, until the decision is made to put down at sea (not attempted today). With the exercise completed to the mission commander’s satisfaction, preparations are made for recovery to RAAF Williamtown. From the cockpit, the results of recent flooding are readily apparent – the flightcrew note it but are engaged in the business of landing the Wedgetail and dealing with ATC, tasks they perform with consummate ease.

Airstairs are wheeled to the side of Wedgetail A30‑001 and your correspondent bids farewell to the crew. The aircraft is to complete a hot refuel before heading to the coast of Queensland to spend the afternoon working with 1SQN Super Hornets from RAAF Amberley.

All in a day’s work.