Boom Times

Wedgetail first cab off the rank to be cleared for boom refuelling from the KC-30A

If ever there was a symbolic milestone that denotes the ever deepening of RAAF capabilities, it was the recent trials to clear 2 Squadron’s E-7A Wedgetail to refuel from 33 Squadron’s Airbus KC-30A Multi Role Tanker Transports. This sticking point saw the KC-30 acquisition managed under the Defence Materiel Organisation’s Projects of Concern process while software remediation work was undertaken to correct the control laws and expand the envelope of the boom.

Now, some four years after entering service, the boom has been debugged, and the serious business of clearing it for operational use has been entrusted to the test pilots and flight test engineers of the Aircraft Research and Development Unit (ARDU) at RAAF Edinburgh.