• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Fleet Air Arm

Australia’s naval and maritime forces must be able to undertake a wide range of activities in support of the Strategic Defence Objectives and operate across huge distances. The area of Australia’s maritime zones, including our Exclusive Economic Zone, is one of the largest in the world, with a total marine area of around 10 million square kilometres. Australia is also responsible for covering one of the largest search and rescue areas in the world, some 53 million square kilometres of the Indian, Pacific and Southern Oceans. Naval and maritime forces deploy around the world for training, exercises and to participate in coalition operations to support the rules-based global order.

The sheer size of the air and sea space within Australia's primary operational environment presents particular challenges in relation to surveillance and armed maritime response across such a vast area.

The Fleet Air Arm provides the RAN's naval aviation capability. The Australian Forces were re-equipped and extensively developed in the 1960s. Major equipments brought into service in that decade were Skyhawk and Tracker aircraft and the Wessex helicopters which operated from HMAS Melbourne; and twelve Orion P3B maritime patrol aircraft.

Australia's maritime defence in the early 1970s included a maritime reconnaissance and surveillance capability, an ability to respond to a submarine threat, and defence against air and surface threats to maritime interests. Two RAAF squadrons of Long Range Maritime Patrol Aircraft (10 Orions and 12 Neptunes), capable of rapid deployment to operating bases near their patrol areas, and one squadron of Naval patrol aircraft (Trackers) capable of operating from HMAS Melbourne or from shore bases, provide the air element of the Australian Maritime Surveillance System. The aircraft could also operate independently of ships of the RAN.

The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) operated 2 Squadrons of S-2E and S-2G variants from 1967 until 1984. VS-816 Squadron, although based at Nowra, frequently embarked upon the Majestic class aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne, CVS-21, as part of the 21st Carrier Air Group whenever that ship was deployed. VC-851 Squadron was formed at HMAS Albatross, Nowra as a land-based training squadron.

During about 20 years of operation of the Tracker, the RAN lost only one S-2 during aircraft operations due to an accident at sea. However, in the mid 1970s a deliberately lit fire in a hangar at Nowra destroyed or badly damaged a large proportion of the RAN’s complement of Trackers. These were subsequently replaced with ex-USN aircraft. The replacement aircraft were all S-2Gs, including the original aircraft modified by the USN to that status. This saw the introduction of AQA7 acoustic gear into RAN service and all RAN operational Trackers were subsequently modified to this standard. The AQA7 significantly enhanced the RAN’s ASW capability.

The development of the Learmonth airstrip, and the Cockburn Sound facility, improved surveillance capability over the Eastern Indian Ocean. The airfield facilities on Cocos Island are being maintained. RAAF long range patrol activity and co-ordination with our allies has already been extended over the Eastern Indian Ocean area. The Orion's 2,000 mile radius of action illustrates this capability. Naval patrol aircraft from HMAS Melbourne had a radius of operation of 400 miles; their surveillance capability was governed by the carrier's range which can be extended as required by support ships. The maritime air capability can be supplemented by the F-111 aircraft when they came into service.

The RAN and the RAAF were well practised in anti-submarine warfare, HMAS Melbourne, with Tracker aircraft and Wessex helicopters embarked, and the antisubmarine warfare sensors and weapons (which include the Australian Ikara missile) in our six River class destroyers, and the two squadrons of Long Range Maritime Patrol aircraft referred to earlier, are primarily tasked to provide defence against submarine attack.

The RAN's Wessex anti-submarine helicopters and the RAAF's Neptune maritime patrol aircraft both reached the end of useful life in the 1970s. HMAS Melbourne, from which the Wessex helicopters operated, terminated its useful life in about 1980. The study of Naval Air Power now in hand will influence decisions on the replacement of these equipments. Proposals for provision of land and sea based surveillance and anti-submarine capability were under study.

For many years, it was an entirely helicopter based force, with a total of four squadrons. Most of the Navy's large ships were capable of operating helicopters, and frigates typically carry Sikorsky S-70B Seahawk and support ships carry Westland Sea King Mk 50 aircraft during operational deployments. The Fleet Air Arm and its associated support are under the direction of the Navy Aviation Force. Both the NAF and Fleet Air Arm are located at HMAS Albatross in New South Wales.

As a matter of urgency, the Government planned to acquire a fleet of at least 24 new naval combat helicopters to provide eight or more aircraft concurrently embarked on ships at sea. These new aircraft will possess advanced ASW capabilities, including sonar systems able to be lowered into the sea and air-launched torpedoes, as well as an ability to fire air-to-surface missiles.

The Government will introduce 46 new MRH-90 helicopters as a pooled fleet shared between the Royal Australian Navy and the Australian Army to replace the Navy's Sea Kings and the Army's general troop lift Blackhawk fleets. This large state-of-the-art helicopter, equipped with an infrared system for use in low-light conditions, will provide significantly greater load- and troop-carrying capacity. The Navy will operate six MRH-90 helicopters and share a further seven for common flight training for both Services; the balance will be assigned to the Army and fleet maintenance cycles. The MRH-90 would enter service with the Navy in 2010.

To boost maritime surveillance, in 2016 Australia planned to purchase seven US-made MQ-4C Triton drones and eight P-8A Poseidon aircraft.

Maritime Air Forces

The organic combat helicopters available to the RAN include the Seahawk and Sea Sprite helicopters described below, while the Sea King operates in the organic utility role. Smaller helicopters can also be utilised for shipborne utility operations, notably in support of the Hydrographic Force, but are not normally employed on combat operations. The Army's Blackhawks can operate as battlefield utility helicopters organic to the amphibious transports.

Integral to Australian concepts of maritime warfare are the P3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft, the F-111 strike reconnaissance aircraft and the F/A-18 Hornet fighter aircraft. In the future, airborne early warning and control aircraft will be similarly critical to the ADF being an effective operator in maritime warfare and both naval and air force personnel will be embarked. Very few maritime operations can be contemplated without consideration of the air and that control of the air is an integral component of sea control. Furthermore, the capabilities of air and naval forces tend to be complementary rather than supplementary because of the unique characteristics of platforms of each environment.

The established fatigue life of the P-3’s critical structure was originally forecast to expire on the fleet-lead aircraft in early 2008. Australian Aerospace and joint venture partner MPSPO provided the SBI Program as a solution to the Australian Government to extend the structural life of type to meet the planned P-3 withdrawal from service date of 2018.