Australia — Chief of Air Force visits deployed RAAF personnel in Middle East

Chief of Air Force, Air Mar­shal (AIRMSHL) Mark Bin­skin, has praised the tire­less efforts of deployed RAAF per­son­nel who con­tin­ue to play a cru­cial role in the ADF’s Mid­dle East oper­a­tions.

AIRMSHL Bin­skin has just com­plet­ed a vis­it to RAAF ele­ments in Afghanistan and at Al Min­had Air Base in the Unit­ed Arab Emi­rates. Air Force has more than 400 peo­ple deployed to the Mid­dle East Area of Operations. 

“The Air Force team is work­ing day and night in the Mid­dle East to get the job done pro­fes­sion­al­ly. Our air and ground crews con­tin­ue to impress with their abil­i­ty to over­come chal­lenges and ded­i­ca­tion to duty in the high tem­po envi­ron­ment. I’m extreme­ly proud of what they’re achiev­ing,” AIRMSHL Bin­skin said. 

“I attend­ed the Remem­brance Day cer­e­mo­ny at Tarin Kot. This was a time to reflect on the recent oper­a­tional deaths and injuries the ADF and its part­ners have suf­fered in south­ern Afghanistan and a reminder of the con­tin­u­ing chal­lenges in con­duct­ing oper­a­tions there.” 

AIRMSHL Bin­skin also vis­it­ed the Heron Remote­ly Pilot­ed Air­craft detach­ment while in Afghanistan. 

“RAAF has flown more than 2,500 Heron hours since Jan­u­ary 2010. The Heron is an impor­tant com­po­nent to the mod­ern bat­tle­field, pro­vid­ing vital sit­u­a­tion­al aware­ness for troops on the ground. It has assist­ed in sav­ing lives by iden­ti­fy­ing threats,” he said. 

“Air Force Ori­on crews are also work­ing hard to sup­port sol­diers on the ground, through their wide-area intel­li­gence, sur­veil­lance and recon­nais­sance capa­bil­i­ties. In addi­tion, our Ori­on crews are con­duct­ing mar­itime patrols in the Ara­bi­an Sea and counter-pira­cy tasks off the Horn of Africa.” 

“RAAF’s giant C‑17s and C‑130 Her­cules play a cru­cial role in the ADF’s Mid­dle East oper­a­tions car­ry­ing troops, vehi­cles and essen­tial sup­plies in often very dif­fi­cult oper­at­ing con­di­tions. And none of RAAF’s oper­a­tions could occur effec­tive­ly with­out the hard work of our Com­bat Sup­port Unit per­son­nel at Al Min­had and bases in Afghanistan.” 

AIRMSHL Bin­skin also met with his Unit­ed Arab Emi­rates coun­ter­part, Major Gen­er­al Mohammed bin Suwaidan Saeed Al-Qamzi, Chief of Air Force and Air Defense. 

“The excel­lent work­ing rela­tion­ship between the RAAF and the UAE Air Force has proved to be an impor­tant ele­ment in the ADF’s abil­i­ty to con­duct suc­cess­ful oper­a­tions from Al Min­had Air Base.” AIRMSHL Bin­skin said. 

Press release
Min­is­te­r­i­al Sup­port and Pub­lic Affairs,
Depart­ment of Defence,
Can­ber­ra, Australia 

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