Australien — Air Force Hercules test their skills at Air Warrior

A true test of com­bat air mobil­i­ty skills is com­ing for Roy­al Aus­tralian Air Force (RAAF) C‑130 Her­cules air­craft and crews on their way to Exer­cise Air War­rior II.

Held out of Lit­tle Rock Air Force Base in Arkansas from April 18–26, Air War­rior II will see per­son­nel sup­port and fly the Her­cules in a sim­u­lat­ed front­line envi­ron­ment to deliv­er troops and cargo.

A C‑130H and C‑130J Her­cules from No. 37 Squadron will depart RAAF Base Rich­mond for the exer­cise on April 13. A con­tin­gent of 88 Aus­tralian per­son­nel will par­tic­i­pate along­side their Unit­ed States mil­i­tary counterparts.

Air War­rior II fea­tures day and night-time mis­sions which take place in a train­ing area filled with airstrips, drop zones, and a host of sim­u­lat­ed ene­my threats.

Wing Com­man­der Matt Hegar­ty, Com­mand­ing Offi­cer of No. 37 Squadron, said Air War­rior II is an excel­lent oppor­tu­ni­ty to fur­ther devel­op the skills of Air Force and Army Air Dis­patch per­son­nel in a joint environment.

“Our suc­cess in Air War­rior II will be judged on how we safe­ly and effec­tive­ly per­form our com­bat air mobil­i­ty role as a coali­tion part­ner,” Wing Com­man­der Hegar­ty said.

“Our par­tic­i­pa­tion in Air War­rior II is part of how we’re able to suc­cess­ful­ly inte­grate with coali­tion part­ners on real-world oper­a­tions. Through this exer­cise we learn from peo­ple with the skills and expe­ri­ence in con­duct­ing high inten­si­ty air mobil­i­ty operations.”

“While they’re fly­ing their mis­sions, our Her­cules crews can expect to face ground-borne threats which are sim­u­lat­ed through pyrotech­nics, and be judged on their mis­sion suc­cess by an inde­pen­dent observ­er who will fly with them.”

Mean­while, main­tain­ers and oper­a­tional sup­port per­son­nel must face the pres­sures of keep­ing the Her­cules ‘on line’ whilst they defend against ‘ene­my’ ground forces.

The RAAF has more than half a cen­tu­ry of oper­at­ing dif­fer­ent mod­els of the C‑130 Her­cules in the air mobil­i­ty role, and con­tin­ues to refine and devel­op its abilities.

“Air War­rior II allows us to main­tain our high stan­dards by util­is­ing train­ing facil­i­ties in the Unit­ed States which are unlike what we have back home,” Wing Com­man­der Hegar­ty said. Dur­ing the exer­cise, RAAF and Army per­son­nel will also have the unique oppor­tu­ni­ty to con­duct an Anzac Day com­mem­o­ra­tive service. 

Source:
Roy­al Aus­tralian Air Force
Media Con­tact
Flight Lieu­tenant Eamon Hamil­ton (02) 4587 3844 or 0429 868 794 

Team GlobDef

Seit 2001 ist GlobalDefence.net im Internet unterwegs, um mit eigenen Analysen, interessanten Kooperationen und umfassenden Informationen für einen spannenden Überblick der Weltlage zu sorgen. GlobalDefence.net war dabei die erste deutschsprachige Internetseite, die mit dem Schwerpunkt Sicherheitspolitik außerhalb von Hochschulen oder Instituten aufgetreten ist.

Alle Beiträge ansehen von Team GlobDef →