By
PTE John Wellfare
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Air
Force AP-3Cs are among the Defence assets that will be employed
by the Joint Offshore Protection Command.
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Photo
by LAC Greg Pierce
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The
Joint Offshore Protection Command has been established
and recently began joint Defence and Customs
patrols to Australia’s north.
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THE
first combined Customs and ADF patrols of Australia’s northern
oil and gas fields have been conducted under the newly established
Joint Offshore Protection Command (JOPC).
Live video footage of the patrols, which involved two Coastwatch
Dash-8 aircraft, a Navy patrol boat and a Customs patrol boat,
was broadcast back to the National Surveillance Centre in Canberra
for the JOPC launch on March 30.
Chief of Joint Staff at JOPC, Group Captain Ian Pearson, said
the Surveillance and Response Group would be the Air Force element
most actively involved with JOPC on a day-to-day basis.
“As well as the No. 92 Wing surveillance aircraft, there
are also radar facilities ... being monitored by Air Force radar
operators,” he said.
“If the situation does transition to hostilities, then the
range of Defence capabilities that we have – Navy, Army,
Special Forces and Air Force – can all come to bear.”
GPCAPT Pearson said although the finer points of JOPC were still
being developed, the new command would allow for a smoother transition
between Customs and ADF operations to protect Australian assets
in the event that a military response was required.
“A lot of people talk about a whole-of-Government approach,
we do it,” he said. “Defence and Customs have a very
close cooperative and productive working relationship.
“[JOPC] is a formalisation of the well-established but less
formal working relationship that we already have.”
As an integrated whole-of-government approach to maritime security,
JOPC will also work in cooperation and coordination with Australia’s
regional partners, as required.
GPCAPT Pearson said if a civil maritime surveillance situation
became a military situation, JOPC could seamlessly transition
into military operations.
“We’ll also be in the position of putting together standing
plans that will provide us with guidance for what we’re going
to do in a given situation.”
JOPC was established in response to recommendations made in November
last year by the Government’s Taskforce on Offshore Maritime
Security.
The focus of JOPC will be on protecting Australia’s offshore
oil and gas facilities, as well as detecting and defeating any
terrorist threat to maritime assets and the coastline.
Headquarters JOPC is collocated with the Coastwatch Division of
the Australian Customs Service in Canberra.
