Updated

The airforce exercise pushing our pilots to the limit.

Source: 7.30 NT | Duration: 8min 12sec

Topics: defence-and-national-security, nt

Transcript

PHOEBE STEWART, PRESENTER: They're Australia's Top Guns and for the past few weeks they've been showing off their skills and firepower over the Top End. Exercise Aces North features more than 40 planes, dozens of pilots and a ground crew nudging 900. Much of the action has centred on the RAAF base at Tindal, near Katherine. The base remains one of Australia's most strategically located defence facilities. Now, the United States is looking to increase its use of the base in the coming years. Jano Gibson reports.

JANO GIBSON, REPORTER: Through the shimmer of the Top End heat, a squadron of fighter jets prepares for a dangerous mission. As the FA18s pick up speed and take to the air, the deafening roar of jet engines can be heard across RAAF Base Tindal.

WING CMDR PETE MITCHELL, NO. 75 SQUADRON COMMANDING OFFICER: The thrust of the aeroplane is outstanding and the afterburner really does push you back in the seat and the aeroplane accelerates really quickly up to our take off speeds that are around 280 kilometres an hour at takeoff.

JANO GIBSON: These war planes are taking part in Exercise Aces North - a month-long training program designed to push pilots to the limit.

WING CMDR PETE MITCHELL, NO. 75 SQUADRON COMMANDING OFFICER: It's the 'Top Gun' equivalent of the Australian Air Force and they become fighter combat instructors and it tests the high-end war fighting skills and their tactical leadership and decision making.

JANO GIBSON: It all begins here in the briefing room, where the mission commander plans the attack. From there, the pilots head to the life support unit.

WING CMDR PETE MITCHELL, NO. 75 SQUADRON COMMANDING OFFICER: That's where the pilots will sign for their G-suits, their survival vests and helmets and then from there they go down into the maintenance flight line and sign for the aeroplanes.

JANO GIBSON: In the hangar, the planes are given a final check-over before take-off.

WING CMDR PETE MITCHELL, NO. 75 SQUADRON COMMANDING OFFICER: He'll do things like checking the targeting pod, jamming pods, any ordinance that's loaded on that aeroplane and then from there he's supported by a small team of maintenance personnel that help him strap into that aeroplane and then oversee the start and final checks before he taxis out.

JANO GIBSON: With the all-clear, it's time to fire up the engines. Exercise Aces North simulates a battle in the sky. Today, Tindal's FA18s are playing the role of the red enemy - up against a blue force launching its attack 300 kilometres to the north.

WING CMDR PETE MITCHELL, NO. 75 SQUADRON COMMANDING OFFICER: The Blue Forces are all in Darwin and they get given a mission to achieve. Out of Tindal, at the moment, the 77 and the 75 squadron are providing the adversary aeroplanes and providing tactics that test various parts of the blue game plan.

JANO GIBSON: The FA18 can reach speeds of almost two thousand kilometres an hour, altitudes of 50-thousand feet, and G-forces that would make most people faint.

WING CMDR PETE MITCHELL, NO. 75 SQUADRON COMMANDING OFFICER: The G-forces - the aeroplane can pull, in most configurations, up to 7.5G so your head, arms, legs weigh seven and a half times what they normally weigh, here on the ground.

JANO GIBSON: The war planes carry a limited supply of fuel, but instead of having to return to base they're able to get a mid-air top up from a floating tanker. The air battle is coordinated from the RAAF's eye in the sky - a 300-million dollar surveillance plane known as the Wedgetail.

FLT LT ANDREW HARRIS, NO. 2 SQUADRON: It looks like a Virgin 737 with about 10 tonnes extra worth of stuff on it, including a big surfboard, the radar, a lot more antennas on it for the radios.

JANO GIBSON: The Wedgetail acts like a flying control tower - using its state-of-the-art radar to direct friendly fighter jets to enemy targets.

FLT LT ANDREW HARRIS, NO. 2 SQUADRON: It's a very time critical decision making process with fighters going face to face, going very fast against one another a split second delay in that timing could affect the outcome of the battle.

JANO GIBSON: But there's only so much the Wedgetail can do - in the end it comes down to the fighter jet pilots themselves.

WING CMDR PETE MITCHELL, NO. 75 SQUADRON COMMANDING OFFICER: So we transition from surveillance picture, radar picture in the fighter, into what we call eyeballs out and looking for the adversary aeroplane and then from there, tactically manoeuvring, not only our aeroplane, but the aeroplanes of our wingmen with direction to get to a positional advantage within the visual fight.

JANO GIBSON: With the mission complete, the planes return to base under the watchful eye of air traffic control.

MIGUEL ANTON RIVERA, JOINT BATTLEFIELD AIRSPACE CONTROLLER: You're working with a team so there's always somebody looking out for you, looking out for your back and it's quite rewarding once you, you know, you have a sequence and get all the aircraft back on the ground safely.

JANO GIBSON: The pilots might get most of the glory, but they're just one part of a wider network at Tindal helping the planes stay in the sky.

WING CMDR PETE MITCHELL, NO. 75 SQUADRON COMMANDING OFFICER: 75 Squadron alone has 230 personnel and of those there are only 14 pilots here so the pilots provide the very, whether it's the tip of the spear but they are a very small part of the actual execution across the exercise.

JANO GIBSON: The original runway at RAAF Base Tindal was set up during the Second World War, to help counter the Japanese attack on Australia's northern frontier.

WING CMDR MARK LARTER, TINDAL SENIOR ADF OFFICER: It was deliberately located south of Darwin and really was out of reach of the Japanese Imperial forces and it really was to make sure that we had a robust air defensive cover that if we needed to get up to Darwin then we could.

JANO GIBSON: From its humble beginnings as an airstrip in the outback, Tindal has grown into a thriving community.

WING CMDR MARK LARTER, TINDAL SENIOR ADF OFFICER: The whole bases houses around 550 service personnel and if we include families on that, that live on base, we will probably be approaching up to about the two thousand mark.

JANO GIBSON: To this day it remains one of Australia's most important military bases.

WING CMDR MARK LARTER, TINDAL SENIOR ADF OFFICER: We can project air combat power from just about the northern tip of Australia so strategically it plays a very important role for Australia and that's why we host various multi-national excercises so that we can train with our coalition partners.

JANO GIBSON: Coalition partners like the United States, whose Marines and Air Force are set to play a greater role at Tindal over the coming years.

WING CMDR MARK LARTER, TINDAL SENIOR ADF OFFICER: We could have the tanker passenger aircraft, the KC10s. We might have some heavy bombers, but again no decision's been made at this time.

JANO GIBSON: Whatever decision is made, they'll be sure to make the most of what Tindal has to offer.

WING CMDR PETE MITCHELL, NO. 75 SQUADRON COMMANDING OFFICER: I've flown in airspace throughout the world, both in south-east Asia and North America, and the airspace between Tindal and Darwin is the best fighting airspace to practise these high-end tactical manoeuvres.