LAC Bennett at work at the 114 mobile control and reporting centre deployed to RAAF Base Amberley during the exercise.

No less than three task forces composed of around 2400 people have successfully maintained heightened security levels at the recent CHOGM 2002 meetings on Queensland's Sunshine Coast.

The airliner attacks on New York and Washington on 11 September underlined the need to provide security in the air as well as on the ground.

The postponement of CHOGM 2001 and the heightened security surrounding this year's event reflected this, along with the inclusion of the air defence component - Joint Task Force (JTF) 645.

Operation Guardian II - the Australian Defence Force security assistance provided to Queensland Police, Federal Police and other Government agencies for CHOGM 2002 - played a key role in providing air defence support, general and anti-terrorism support.

The Joint Task Force (JTF) 645's mission was to protect the skies over CHOGM and its approaches.

'This is an historic deployment of Australian air power. The provision of armed air defence over Australian soil is something we haven't seen in a long time, in fact not since World War II,' Commander of JTF 645, Air Commodore John Quaife, explained.

Pooled from the Air Force's Air Combat, Surveillance and Control and Air Lift groups, JTF 645 fielded F/A-18 fighters, Boeing 707 air-to-air refuelling aircraft, surveillance and control radars and a headquarters component.

The Airspace Control Plan, developed between Air Force and Air Services Australia, pieced together the jigsaw of just how civil aviation could continue to operate safely, while Hornets and 707s scrambled from Amberley to patrol above the CHOGM sites.

Squadron Leader Dave Shepherd, Joint Staff Officer - Airspace Operations, admitted it was 'quite a challenge' to put the plan together.

'In fact it's a tribute to the combined flexibility of the Air Force, Air Services Australia and Queensland Police,' SQNLDR Shepherd said.

A network of radars and personnel kept watch over the aircraft with voice and data links back to the JTF headquarters in Amberley allowing a block of air 60,000 feet high and hundreds of kilometres in diameter to be monitored around the clock.

A close watch was also kept on every aircraft in that space and their identities, flight plans, routes, headings, speeds and heights tracked.

Meanwhile the F/A-18s provided the response part of the equation, maintaining alert states and combat air patrols over the sites on a 24-hour basis.

If required, F/A-18 pilots were able to visually identify aircraft, attempt to communicate with the pilot and guide them out of the area.

Logistics, administration and technical personnel toiled to ensure that hundreds of people and tonnes of equipment were moved from around Australia and up and running on time.

Wing Commander Ian Gibson, Joint Staff Officer - Surveillance and Control Operations, said JTF 645 deployed air defence assets regularly on exercise.

'Operation Guardian II really validated those procedures and the way we employ those assets,' he explained.

After CHOGM had concluded, AIRCDRE Quaife took a moment to pass on his praise to the Joint Task Force members. 'Operations like this depend on each individual just getting in and doing the job. As commander, it was quite obvious to me that each of you were out there doing just that, and it was your individual contribution that guaranteed the overall success of JTF 645.'

Story by FLTLT Christine Bradley
Photograph by LACW Jacqui Bull