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| RAAF Wedgetail AEW&C Aircraft (File Photo) |
By ROBBIN LAIRD
Washington often grumbles about its allies and their contributions — or lack thereof — to the common defense. But some allies are making key investments in 21st century weapons to operate against 21st century threats.
A good example is the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) and its operations against ISIL in Iraq. The RAAF strike force flew from Australia to the Middle East using its own tankers and airlift. It’s been a long road to this sort of deployment. The Aussies entered the 21st century with an aging Air Force. The transformation really began when they added the C-17, which was at the end of its production run.
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| RAAF A330 KC-30A MRTT Tanker Aircraft (File Photo) |
“Government suddenly realized that they had the speed and capacity to make an Australian flag appear anywhere in the South Pacific region within 12 hours and then have a revisit capability within the next 24 hours or less, if you’re utilizing two or more aircraft,” said Air Commodore Gary Martin, now the Air Attaché in Washington but most recently commander of the Air Mobility Group, “This was a shift from a three- to four-day process to one of 12 hours. This changed us from being tactical airlift to strategic airlift. With the C130, it always took a day to get offshore and then another day to get to the first point after that. With the C-17, we could now conduct an operation from anywhere in Australia, pick up a load in Australia, get offshore, and come back home before 9:00. This was a quantum leap for the RAAF and for the Government.”
Read the full story at BreakingDefense