WE’RE KINGS OF FINCASTLE

Captain of the winning aircraft Flight Lieutenant Ruben Duerr holds aloft the Fincastle Trophy for 2003 amid cheers and applause from his fellow members of Crew 5 from No. 10 Squadron. Photo by CPL Greg Walls

Flying the flag at Fincastle 2003. Photo by LAC Rod Welch

By LACW Simone Liebelt

TWENTY-NINE years after they last won the prestigious Fincastle Trophy, No. 10 Squadron has taken top honours at the 43rd annual anti-submarine warfare competition.

Crew 5 of 10SQN were ecstatic at claiming the prize – last won by their squadron in 1974 – against the best maritime crews from the United Kingdom, Canada and New Zealand.

The crew were also thrilled to take the silverware ahead of their English rivals after the Wallabies’ loss of the Rugby World Cup.

Australia was the only crew to find and “kill” the submarine on one of their sorties without an intelligence update. (If the crews were unable to locate the submarine within the first four hours on task, they were given its position with an intelligence update, earning them only half points.)

Our AP-3C made its debut at this year’s competition, hosted for the first time by RAAF Base Pearce, in a test of submarine-hunting skills off the coast of Western Australia from November 21-26.

The members of Crew 5 like to call themselves the Australian Foreign Legion because of their mix of origins – two English, two German, one American and eight Australians.

The Fincastle success is the culmination of a busy year in which the crew deployed to the Middle East and participated in Operation Relex and the NATO Joint Maritime Course exercise in Scotland, as well as undertaking routine training and maritime tasks from RAAF Base Edinburgh.

Crew captain Flight Lieutenant Ruben Duerr said the aircrew, ground crew and operations personnel did an outstanding job to regain the trophy for Australia after an exhausting year.

FLTLT Duerr said while Fincastle was a great professional and social event, the most memorable moment was flying the last sortie of the competition.

“By far the highlight for the whole crew was when we went out on task and found and killed the submarine in about half the time it takes to get an intelligence update,” FLTLT Duerr said.

“By the time the update arrived, we were all back in the bar and the other crews probably knew that we’d just won the competition.

“I was extremely impressed with how the guys went and I think winning the competition not only showed the professionalism of the crew and the support staff but also reinforced that we have one of the best maritime patrol aircraft in the world. It was such a great feeling to win.”

The maritime crews were given three attempts to successfully locate, track and attack a “hostile” submarine – which was acting as a target while on ocean patrol – within a set time frame. They flew a day sortie, night sortie and what is known as a Casex, used to determine a clear winner in the event of a tie.

An international committee of analysts and observers scored marks for detection, tracking and attacking of the submarine.

CAF Air Marshal Angus Houston presented the winning crew with the Fincastle Trophy at a special ceremony, attended by more than 200 guests, at Edinburgh on November 28. The RAF won the Maintenance Trophy and Canada collected the Fellowship Trophy for the most sociable crew.

The last Australian team to win Fincastle was from No. 11 Squadron in 1994.

View video from the competition.

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