Login
iscover
Australian Army ARH Tiger helicopter crews from three different aircraft types have renewed their deck landing qualifications on HMAS Adelaide ahead of the coming high-risk weather season.
To continue reading the rest of this article, please log in.
Create free account to get unlimited news articles and more!
HMAS Adelaide provided an opportunity for a CH-47 Chinook heavy-lift helicopter, an MRH-90 Taipan and an ARH Tiger helicopter to operate on its flight deck concurrently during the training exercises, which were conducted off the coast of Queensland near Townsville as part of Exercise SEA WADER.
Multiple crews from Army’s 1st Aviation Regiment, based in Darwin, and 5th Aviation Regiment from Townsville maintained their landing currency for the amphibious platform, allowing them to land on Navy’s largest warships.
Australian Army Major Sacheen Gallop, Airops HMAS Adelaide, said the deck landing operations and qualifications along with joint training were essential to allow aircrew to maintain their skills and competency requirements.
“Army aviation teams have most recently worked alongside their Navy counterparts in Operation Bushfire Assist and as we move into the high-risk weather season the deck landing qualifications will allow for more aviation assets to operate off Adelaide,” MAJ Gallop explained.
Adelaide is currently the Navy’s high-readiness vessel and is available to support humanitarian and disaster relief operations domestically and in the region.
Lieutenant Colonel Jamie Martin, Commanding Officer 5th Aviation Regiment, said the unit’s MRH-90 and Chinook crews were training to maintain proficiency for amphibious operations with HMAS Adelaide.
“This is to enable us to posture for any contingency operations in the region or to support disaster response operations if called upon by government,” LTCOL Martin said.
The deck landing qualifications with Army followed a similar exercise with Republic of Singapore Air Force CH-47 helicopter crews, which also successfully qualified their aircrew over two days of flight training on Adelaide just off Townsville.
Lieutenant Commander Adam Wells, of Adelaide, said the deck landings provided a valuable opportunity for the ship’s aviation support team.
“We have a lot of trainees at the moment, so they were able to be exposed to new types of aircraft that they don’t always see,” he said.
The latest deck-landing training on Adelaide with Army followed a similar exercise with Republic of Singapore Air Force CH-47 crews, which also successfully qualified their aircrew over two days of flight training off the coast of Townsville.
Singapore’s CH-47 aircraft worked alongside Army’s 5th Aviation Regiment during the bushfire emergency in Victoria earlier this year.
Adelaide is currently hosting the Australian Amphibious Task Group for a range of amphibious training in far north Queensland as part of Exercise Sea Wader, which runs from 24 October to 8 November 2020.
Adelaide is currently the fleet’s designated high readiness vessel and has been conducting helicopter flight trials and amphibious training off the coast of Queensland to ensure the ship and crew remain ready to respond to emergencies and disasters if directed by the Australian government.
