Australian Air Force Drone Flies Outside Restricted Area

On Wednesday, AIN online reported that the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) started flying an unmanned aircraft system in a civilian airspace for the first time without interrupting civilian aicraft. As a part of Talisman Sabre joint training exercise partnered with the U.S military, this action was carried out. The UAS’s sponsored Israeli-made Heron started flying from Rockhampton Airport located about 395 miles north of Brisbane along Australia’s eastern seaboard.

In a memorandum signed between the RAAF and air navigation service provider Airservices Australia, this 1,100 kg unmanned propeller driven was allowed to fly outside of restricted military airspace. According to Australian Broadcasting Corporation, the service was conducted this week to make the fighter pilots more conversant with the routes.

Both the RAAF and Airservices Australia formalized the partnership and Chris Westwood, the Air Commodore issued a statement saying, “the MoA aids both Airservices and the Air Force by facilitating the initial operation and integration of remotely piloted aircraft into civil airspace, based on the Air Force’s mature and thorough airworthiness and aviation safety system.” For safety maintenance, the Civil Aviation Safety Authority that serves as Australia’s aviation regulatory agency has agreed to monitor the arrangements before flying,

The RAAF reported to have leased the unarmed heron from Canadian firm MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) that proposed an AU$ 41.75 million contract with the Australian government in order to shift the vehicle from Afghanistan to Australia. The Biennal war games that started in 2005 would deploy upto 30,000 Australian and US military personnel in Northern Australia this time to practice high end war fighting skills that would include force preparation, air and maritime operations and Special Forces activities.

According to Global Times, the RAAF Wing Commander Jonathan MCMullan called it to be a historic week and expressed his intention to integrate that would allow them to expand operations outside the defence restricted airspace in Australia. He further said that now the army commanders would be allowed “to integrate the heron system into the battlefield to provide enhanced battlefield awareness."

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