Australia — RAAF gear up for East Coast Exercise

Roy­al Aus­tralian Air Force per­son­nel will play an impor­tant role as fight­er jets take to the skies for the East Coast Air Defence Exer­cise (ECADEX 11) next week.

The exer­cise will com­mence on Mon­day 28 Novem­ber and will run until Fri­day 9 Decem­ber, with essen­tial work-up train­ing being con­duct­ed this week. 

Com­man­der Air Com­bat Group, Air Com­modore Mel Hupfeld, said, “ECADEX 11 is a vital train­ing exer­cise for Air Force per­son­nel, to main­tain oper­a­tional capa­bil­i­ty and to prac­tice key air defence skills. 

“The exer­cise also pro­vides an oppor­tu­ni­ty for Air Force per­son­nel to prac­tise their skills at main­tain­ing the integri­ty of Aus­tralian air­space and pro­tect­ing vital infra­struc­ture, such as a ship­ping port or an airfield.” 

The major­i­ty of the air­craft assets and per­son­nel will be oper­at­ing out of their home bases at RAAF Williamtown (NSW) and RAAF Amber­ley (QLD) for the dura­tion of the exercise. 

Exer­cise fly­ing will be con­duct­ed in the east coast mil­i­tary train­ing area off the cen­tral coast of New South Wales with some exer­cise fly­ing occur­ring inside the pro­mul­gat­ed Williamtown low fly­ing area. 

The exer­cise sce­nario is designed to test both pas­sive and active air defence capa­bil­i­ties where a ‘Blue’ or friend­ly force will pro­tect the integri­ty of Aus­tralian air space and vital infra­struc­ture against attack from a ‘Red’ or oppos­ing force. 

Up to 30 mil­i­tary air­craft from Amber­ley, Williamtown and Tin­dal (NT) will par­tic­i­pate in the bi-annu­al exer­cise, includ­ing F/A‑18F Super Hor­nets, F/A‑18 Clas­sic Hor­nets, Mk127 Hawk lead-in fight­ers and a Wed­getail Air­borne Ear­ly Warn­ing and Con­trol aircraft. 

Exer­cis­es such as these pro­vide vital train­ing for crew and ground per­son­nel in prepa­ra­tion for domes­tic and over­seas oper­a­tions. ECADEX will also pro­vide the oppor­tu­ni­ty to fur­ther devel­op inte­gra­tion of Air Force’s new capa­bil­i­ties, such as the Wed­getail and Super Hornets. 

“Air Force is com­mit­ted to min­imis­ing the impact of ECADEX on the local com­mu­ni­ty, whilst still achiev­ing essen­tial train­ing objec­tives in prepar­ing our per­son­nel to sup­port Australia’s oper­a­tional com­mit­ments and pre­serv­ing the nation’s secu­ri­ty,” Air Com­modore Hupfeld said. 

“We appre­ci­ate the ongo­ing com­mu­ni­ty sup­port for our need to con­duct this vital training.” 

Mem­bers of the com­mu­ni­ty are encour­aged to ring the toll free hot­line 1800 033 200 for fur­ther infor­ma­tion about ECADEX. 

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

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