Inside the RAAF: The hunters

10 & 11 SQNs mark 75 years of maritime patrol

On the weekend of October 4-5, the RAAF’s 10 and 11SQNs celebrated a joint 75th anniversary with a hangar bash, football match, formal dinner and spectacular four-ship fly-over of the city of Adelaide.

RAAF Edinburgh’s vast apron also hosted an impressive static display of long-range maritime patrol aircraft, from the HARS WW2-era Catalina to the ne plus ultra of maritime strike platforms, the Boeing P-8A. Both aircraft types point to the squadron’s past and future, and while their current mount, the AP-3C, may have been the most numerous aircraft on display, the four dismembered Orion hulks haunting the hardstand spoke mutely to the reality that its final days are beckoning.