flightglobal.com 17-23 February 2015 | Flight International | 35
AUSTRALIA
SPECIAL REPORTperformance specifications. A further soft-
ware upgrade to the radar is scheduled for
later this year, and FOC for the six-strong fleet
is expected to be declared once additional
crews are trained in 2016.
Meanwhile the RAAF’s fleet of Lockheed
AP-3C Orion maritime reconnaissance air-
craft is being drawn down as major services
become due and in preparation for the intro-
duction of the Boeing P-8A Poseidon. ThreeAP-3Cs were withdrawn from service in 2013
and 2014, leaving 15 active aircraft available
for service with 10 and 11 Sqns at RAAF Ed-
inburgh near Adelaide.
The Orions were acquired in two batches of
10 aircraft in 1978 and 1986, and were substan-
tially upgraded in the late 1990s. Until late
2012 two AP-3Cs had been continuously de-
ployed for over a decade in the Middle East in
support of Australian and coalition operations
in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Indian Ocean.
Australia has long favoured the 737-800-
based P-8A to replace its Orions, having joined
the US Navy’s P-8 development programme in
2007 as a minor partner and having staff in
place in the P-8 project office since that time.
Funding has been approved for eight P-8As,
while Australia retains options for, and will
likely acquire, at least four additional aircraft.
RAAF P-8A crew training commenced at
NAS Jacksonville in late 2014, and these
crews will be embedded with US Navy
squadrons until the first RAAF aircraft are de-
livered in early 2016. RAAF P-8As will arrive
at Edinburgh in late 2016, with IOC planned
for January 2018.
The other part of Australia’s maritime
reconnaissance requirement will likely be
fulfilled by about seven Northrop Grumman
MQ-4C Triton UASs, which are expected to
be acquired from 2020 and will be operated
by a new squadron from Edinburgh.
Currently under development for the US
Navy, a decision on an Australian Triton
buy, project timings, and the allocation of
funding is expected to be made as part of the
2015 FSR/DWP process.
In the meantime, the RAAF has retained
the IAI Heron RPV capability it has built up in
operations over Afghanistan and which was
recently returned to Australia. The RAAF is
also seeking approval from government to
acquire a new middle tier armed UAS in the
General Atomics MQ-9B Predator Reaper
class from 2017. ■Australia’s first F-35A unit
will be 3 Sqn based at RAAF
Williamtown, which currently
flies F/A-18A Hornetsington state to convert to the jets and to be em-
bedded with US Navy land-based Growler
fleet squadrons. These crews will form the core
of the RAAF’s first cadre of Growler pilot and
EWO instructors within 6 Sqn.
As part of the Growler project, the RAAF
will establish a mobile tactical emitter system
at Amberley and on the vast Delamere range in
the Northern Territory to support electronic
warfare training, and there are longer term
plans to establish a permanent EW range at
Delamere. RAAF Growlers will initially be de-
livered with the Northrop Grumman AN/ALQ-
99 jammer pods, but it is expected the RAAF
will integrate the Next Generation Jammer cur-
rently under development by Raytheon and
the US Navy from 2023 onwards.
The Growler is expected to achieve an ini-
tial operational capability with the RAAF in
- Full operational capability will likely
follow once the EW range is activated, and the
F-35A and other complementary capabilities
are introduced after 2023.
Meanwhile the first two RAAF Lockheed
Martin F-35As were delivered to the USAF
F-35 training school at Luke AFB in Arizona
in December 2014. The RAAF has had a lead
engineer stationed there since June to induct
the aircraft and to establish Australia’s detach-
ment within the centre. The first RAAF F-35
pilot commenced his conversion to the jet at
Eglin AFB in Florida on 26 January, and he
and a second pilot are expected to arrive at
Luke in May.
So far Australia has just two F-35As on con-
tract. Long-lead production funding for anoth-
er 12 F-35As has been committed, and these
are expected to be contracted in low rate initial
production (LRIP) lots 10 and 11 for delivery in
2017 and 2018. In April 2014 the Australian
government approved funding for an addition-
al 58 F-35As to take Australia’s order to 72, and
these will be ordered in LRIP 11 and the ex-
pected follow-on multiyear procurement for
delivery in the 2019-2023 timeframe.
Australia’s first F-35A unit will be 3 Sqn
based at RAAF Williamtown, which currently
flies F/A-18A Hornets, and the first four
F-35As are expected to arrive in Australia in
2019 to support local operational test and
evaluation activities before IOC is declared in
2020-2021. The Williamtown-based 2
Operational Conversion Unit and 77 Sqn, and
Tindal’s 75 Sqn, are expected to replace their
Classic Hornets with F-35As in time for final
operational capability in 2023.
RAAF Williamtown will also see the estab-
lishment of new squadron headquarters and
maintenance facilities, and a 610m (2,000ft)
runway extension to 3,050m (10,000ft) to sup-
port the F-35A in service, while some of the
existing Classic Hornet base facilities will be
retained and refurbished for visiting units.DEVELOPMENT
There has been no further word since mid-
2014 on government suggestions that Australia
acquires up to 28 of the short take-off and verti-
cal landing F-35B variant of the JSF for opera-
tion aboard the Royal Australian Navy’s two
new Canberra-class landing helicopter dock
vessels. This proposal is expected to be consid-
ered as part of the 2015 Force Structure Review
and Defence White Paper (FSR/DWP) process.
On the ISR side of the capability spectrum,
the Boeing E-7A Wedgetail AEW&C operated
by 2 Sqn at Williamtown debuted operation-
ally over Iraq in October, and is providing
command and control coverage and availabil-
ity in that theatre. Indeed, one E-7A mission
over Iraq recently lasted more than 17h, a
world record for any 737-based airframe.
After a prolonged development, the
Wedgetail’s Northrop Grumman multirole
electronically scanned array (MESA) radar is
now achieving much greater stability with
each new software load, and in many param-
eters is said to be exceeding the original24 Super Hornets were acquired in 2007The first two Lockheed
Martin F-35As bound for
the RAAF were delivered
to Luke AFB in Arizona in
December 2014, allowing
pilot training to beginCommonwealth of AustraliaCommonwealth of Australia