Globemaster

Australian Aviation was present to report on how the RAAF’s Air Mobility Group plans to utilise its expanded fleet of C-17s and the ongoing activities of the squadron tasked to operate the aircraft, 36 Squadron.

More than four

A constant cycle of deployment and humanitarian crises has seen Australia’s original quartet of C-17s heavily tasked, be it sustaining an air bridge to ADF forces in the Middle East or flying humanitarian missions within the immediate region or beyond.

A high visibility asset, the C-17’s global reach and 77,000kg payload was readily appreciated not only by the crews who flew it, but by successive Australian governments. After the arrival ceremony, Air Commander Australia, AVM Gavin Turnbull explained to Australian Aviation the events that gave impetus to the decision to acquire further Globemasters.

“The reason we have eight is because the government has seen what we did with four. A watershed year was 2011, with the Japanese tsunami, floods in Queensland and the Chirstchurch earthquake. What we were able to achieve with the C-17s, very visibly for Australia and for government policy, means we now have eight. So, it’s an expansion of our airlift capability and brings us up to world class as far as our capabilities as an air force and our reputation as an air force to get things done and respond quickly to a natural disaster or crisis. ” In response to the events of 2011, the then Labor federal government approved the purchase of a fifth and sixth C-17. Then the last of the RAAF’s C-17s were purchased as ‘white tails’, aircraft built ‘at risk’ and on Boeing’s coin pending sales to interested customers. Following the events of 2014 with the shootdown of MH17 in the Ukraine, as well as the deployment of an Air Task Group to the Middle East Region, then Prime Minister Tony Abbott moved to secure two of the remaining 10 airframes.

“These aircraft came straight off the line,” AVM Turnbull noted. “Purchasing the C-17 became progressively quicker. It took about 180 days for first purchase, and 130 days for the seventh jet. ” The growth of Australia’s fleet of C-17s is not without some slight growing pains, but has left Australia with a world class airlift capability.

“The rapid growth presents problems for us in training the appropriate number of crews across platforms, but with an array that stretches from C-27J to C-130 to C-17, we have airlift options to almost every single scenario, whether long-range C-17 or hub and spoke with C-27J and C-130 into smaller airfields. Government is very well served by the capabilities we’ve generated,” AVM Turnbull explained.

Squadron of choice

WGCDR Steve Pesce is the commanding officer of 36SQN, and can recall airlift operations in the ADF before they were transformed by the C-17.

“I first started flying when Timor had kicked off. I remember being on the flightline at Darwin and two thirds of the airlift was being done by coalition partners. Twenty years later, we’ve evolved where we can sustain multiple operations around the globe. Eight aircraft allows us to have more resilience and provide better response for government. ” Home to the two largest aircraft in the RAAF, Amberley is due to undergo a capital works program to accommodate AMG’s expanding complement of ‘heavies’.

“As we’ve expanded the C-17 fleet, we’ve expanded the KC-30 fleet, and we find ourselves with 15 heavy jets and parking for eight. We’ve had approval for the building of another hangar and with that, another eight spots for Category E aircraft. ” 36SQN is also preparing to receive additional personnel, though not on a scale that the doubling of the C-17 fleet might suggest.

“We’ve got approval for 31 technicians, 12 pilots, and eight loadmasters. The size of the squadron is expanding to operate the increased fleet, but it’s not double, though. As you increase fleet size, you generate efficiencies that you don’t get from a small fleet. With twice the aircraft, we’ll soon be generating twice the rate of effort flying and mission rates, but we’ll only have expanded the number of people at the squadron by 15 per cent. ” Given its strategic importance and ability to globally project, WGCDR Pesce noted that 36SQN is becoming an aspirational posting to those fresh from pilot training.

“We’re a very popular posting and we’re blessed because of that. We get a lot of student pilots that don’t quite make it through to Hornet conversion, and because the C-17 is seen as operational, it’s a platform of choice. We have very strong performers coming to 36SQN, and that allows us to develop them very quickly as captains. Within 18 months to two years, I’ll have someone flying missions into a high threat or medium threat environments. ”

Eight is great

SQNLDR Charles Freebairn is a flight commander at 36SQN who comes to the C-17 world via the C-130. He outlined how the squadron is digesting its recent acquisition.

“It’s challenging because if you get the planes first you don’t have the people and if you get the people first, you don’t have the planes. Now, we’ve got the aircraft, and we’re building up the personnel numbers. We’ll get there next year and then we’ll really be able to flex the full muscle of this capability. ” As the squadron absorbs more personnel, aircrew training, provided by L-3 Communications in situ, ramps up accordingly. Australia is alone, outside the US, in having its own C-17 training and support facilities which L-3 is now in the process of offering to fellow C-17 users, such astwo RAF crewmen from Merlin helicopters, now training as loadmasters for the Globemaster.

SQNLDR Freebairn explained how the C-17 enables the operations of a wide range of users across Government and the ADF. “We move everyone, in every capacity, so we’re doing the joint operations every time. Whether DFAT, Army, Navy – they’re all customers. There are two folds to it. The other services have more of a realisation of C-17 because the aircraft has been around for a while now and it’s more visible in the Middle East Region and Australia. At the same time, it’s a balancing act between them being aware of what we can do and us letting them know what we are able to do. ” Apart from strategic airlift, SQNLDR Freebairn also pointed to the increasing importance of tactical flying, a role C-17 planners envisaged (by flying from the East Coast of the US to the forward edge of the battle area in Europe). “It’s one of our key roles as distinct from a C-141 or C-5. The C-17 was designed to do both heavy long-range airlift and tactical flying. We are able to put the load or passengers directly into the short tactical field, because you skip the step of doing a secondary move from the international airfield.

That’s what we train to do – to land on dirt strips, with NVGs against tactical threats. ” SQNLDR Freebairn

explained the finer points of landing an aircraft with a MTOW of 260 tonnes on an unprepared strip in darkness.

“We train down to a min light level on the runway and it varies a lot due to ambient light and weather conditions. On a good day with good moon state, you can see a lot. But on hazy dayswith no moon or overcast, and lots of cockpit lighting, it can get a lot more challenging to be able to discern the landing zone. The runway is visible, either early or later.

“The C-17 is very light on the controls, from the front you don’t get a sense of mass. You might think it’s a lot of heavy moving of the stick, but it’s very light. It’s quite manoeuvrable for its size.

“We do assault landings and it’s pre-planned to be heavier landings with greater rate of descent and that gives you more accuracy on the landing as there’s less likelihood of floating along – the more you float the more runway gets eaten up. So assault landings should always be firm, and we are able to use the runway lights to quantify our landing ground roll. ” Such tactical flying will no doubt assume greater importance in the C-17’s bag of tricks as the aircraft performs an increasing number of missions for the Army’s special forces.

Special (forces) delivery

WGCDR Pesce offered that the benefit of having eight airframes is that “It gives us flexibility to put in additional resources to develop special forces scenarios. We can develop tactics, procedures and concept of operations with special forces under Plan Jericho. ” In practice, this sees special forces using the C-17’s recent secure satcom upgrades to receive dynamic tasking in flight, enabling greater operational flexibility.

“We’ve already done some tests with Special Forces, and it’s all about their command and control. In the first instance it will benefit them because they can track the mission and co-ordinate the mission and quickly respond to changes. As can we,” SQNLDR Freebairn explained.

That’s what we train to do – to land on dirt strips, with NVGs against tactical threats. SQNLDR FREEBAIRN

Upgrades

AVM Turnbull flagged future upgrades of 86WG’s C-17s, which will stay common with their USAF counterparts. “Air Forces have to constantly evolve, aircraft like this have a lot of longevity and they evolve. We’ve recently upgraded the bandwidth of the satcom system, increased SA of crew with link systems, and we’ll continue to evolve these airframes as they move through our capability spectrum. ” The satcom upgrade is known as Fixed Installation Satellite Antenna (FISA) and provides the C-17 with high-speed IP communications that permit full-motion video, over the horizon, secure phone calls, video conferences, access to classified and public networks, and the performance of other mission-critical communications while in flight.

WGCDR Pesce also nominated Link 16, L-3’s Air View 360 (which combines high-definition displays with a satellite feed) and Viper (a roll on/roll off terminal that provides high bandwidth satellite communications capable of supporting data-intensive C4ISR operations) as future upgrades that will enable the C-17 to network with other force elements in the battlespace.

Exercise regime

Having operated the aircraft since 2006, 36SQN is about to embark upon a more rigorous schedule of exercise participation, including deployments to Wilkins Aerodrome in Antarctica East.

Deployments to overseas exercises have already taken place, with more complex missions being envisaged for future joint exercises at home.

SQNLDR Freebairn described the squadron’s participation in this year’s Talisman Sabre, where 36SQN, staging out of Elmendorf Air Force Base in Alaska, flew C-17s with USAF counterparts for a joint airdrop on the central Queensland coast.

“It was an opportunity to be able to fly with USAF aircraft on a strategic flight and then perform a tactical drop at the end of that flight from Alaska. Seven aircraft launched from Anchorage – five of theirs, two of ours. We landed at Hickam and did a crew swap and took off and caught up with the main contingent because the US aircraft were boom-qualified and could keep hurtling along. We then did the paratroop insertion into Shoalwater Bay and recovered back to Amberley. And that was coordinated as a joint mission.

“We’re looking at Talisman Sabre 17 being able to do inflight refuelling from a KC-30A and going the whole distance. ”

AAR

While the C-17A is capable of being refuelled in flight, 36SQN’s aircraft are yet to be cleared to receive from the booms of 33SQN’s KC-30s.

Speaking to Australian Aviation, a Defence official explained that ensuring all aircrew are currentin inflight refuelling procedures imposes unique costs that need to be weighed. “The reality is AAR comes with an overhead in keeping the crews qualified. You might work out that Wedgetail and Hornets, it’s in your interest to keep them current. In the C-17, it will come down to the missions where you must have an AAR-qualified crew, and that will inform how many crews you need to be current in the squadron. . . for what’s required from the squadron to deliver that capability. ” SQNLDR Freebairn explained where the squadron sits at themoment in acquiring a capability that will act as a considerable force multiplier. “We have two pilots who we are keeping current and they just got back from the US, so they’re qualified to tank the plane. It doesn’t need any modification as it’s all plumbed and ready to go. Training courses are in place and the next step is to perform receiver ops with the KC-30, which is planned for next year. From there, we need to expand our qualified crews and build up our aircrew skills. ”

On exchange

36SQN maintains an ongoing exchange program with the US Air Force.

“We tap into their contacts. We sometimes have questions we can’t answer,” WGCDR Pesce said. “Sometimes we will have access to a lot of US military publications. Quite often, we’ve based our operations on theirs and having those links allows us to tap back in and ask how and why and for what reasons they’ve done things in a particular way. It works for both loadies and pilots. And it gives us a context and perspective for the way they do business and how we can learn from that. ” Likewise, Australian C-17 aircrew on exchange postings in the US get exposure to missions unimaginable at home, such as flying as part of 16 other Globemasters on a massed parachute drop over a US Army range, to name but one.

Eight and out

It would be nigh on impossible to find anyone who doubts the wisdom of the Howard government’s decision to acquire the C-17s. And with production of the Globemaster now terminated, it’s impossible not to feel that we got onto a very, very good thing indeed.