18 March 2024
As a storm poured rain onto a remote airfield in north Western Australia, Flight Lieutenant Peter Hartley was happy to be inside this time.
The Mobile Air Operations Team had just finished setting up a transportable air operations tower, delivered that day to the isolated Mungalalu-Truscott Airbase by barge.
It was mid-January and for the previous month they had worked from the side of a G-Wagon command post module (CPM) with only a gazebo for shelter.
“Looking out at the storm, I couldn’t believe we were working out in that before,” Flight Lieutenant Hartley, the rotation commander, said.
“The tower gave us better comms, environmental protection, sound proofing and an elevated position to see over the whole airfield and surrounding airspace.”
The team deployed at short notice with its primary comms system consisting of the CPM.
The arrival of the tower marked not only increased capability for the operation but also the first air and amphibious transportation of the equipment.
The 452 Squadron team arrived before Christmas last year to integrate the Shadow uncrewed aerial system (UAS) from 20 Regiment, Royal Australian Artillery, into civilian airspace during Operation Resolute.
That required activating a military-controlled airspace with temporarily restricted areas for the Shadow to operate alongside civilian aircraft, including offshore gas and oil rig helicopters flying from Truscott.
“Air traffic control is there to separate the aircraft to allow civil aircraft into the airspace and integrate with the Shadow,” Flight Lieutenant Hartley said.
“Therefore, we can allow the Shadow to do its mission in support of border operations.”
'We grabbed a whole bunch of metal that was lying around from the old runways and used them as reinforcements for the front of the boat ramp and then covered it with cement.'
As the only vehicle access to Truscott is by barge and the runway cannot support aircraft large enough to carry vehicles, the CPM was deployed by amphibious means.
After a three-day barge ride from Darwin, they found their landing site was unsuitable to unload equipment.
With help from the local airport operator providing heavy machinery and expertise, the aviators and soldiers constructed a new boat ramp in a few days with materials gathered from the airbase.
“We just wanted to start working, and that couldn’t happen while the gear was on the barge, so we were happy to help,” Flight Lieutenant Hartley said.
“We grabbed a whole bunch of metal that was lying around from the old runways and used them as reinforcements for the front of the boat ramp and then covered it with cement.”
Once in place they were ready to start operations by the end of the day, according to communications and electronics technician Corporal Lachlan Moss.
“We had a couple of radio issues to begin with,” he said.
“Our voice communications system was not working properly, so we improvised and plugged the headsets into the radio directly, but it wasn’t a big issue.”
'We park it on a grass patch somewhere and the operators will stand under a small bit of cover so when it rains heavily, it gets a bit messy.'
One of the biggest challenges was the weather, which would turn from hot and dusty to raining horizontally and back again with almost no notice.
“There's a lot of sweating and the CPM is not an enclosed unit. We park it on a grass patch somewhere and the operators will stand under a small bit of cover so when it rains heavily, it gets a bit messy,” Corporal Moss said.
Mungalalu-Truscott Airbase is named for Squadron Leader Keith 'Bluey' Truscott, an ace World War 2 fighter pilot and former Commanding Officer of 452 Squadron – a link noticed during the planning of the deployment.
The first rotation ended in late January, and with the team to stay in place until May, Flight Lieutenant Hartley’s advice to future rotations is to keep smiling and keep healthy relationships going.
“The reason it was so enjoyable and successful was that we had really good relationships with the Army and airport,” he said.
“The Air Force is a big enabler here, so it's good to see the joint operations working together.”
