The air up there

By Lieutenant Simone Heyer

OC 92WG and head of the Combined Air Operations Centre for Exercise Kakadu GPCAPT Warren Ludwig talks to the media at RAAF Base Darwin during the exercise, held in the Northern Territory recently. Listening is CO 79SQN WGCDR Steve Cook.

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* The No. 92 Wing CAOC acted as a control hub for flying activities during Exercise Kakadu. Air elements involved in Exercise Kakadu included No.s 75 and 79 Squadrons, Orions from No. 92 Wing, Royal New Zealand Air Force, Pel-Air and Raytheon-contracted aircraft.

BEHIND the ordered façade of No. 92 Wing’s headquarters at RAAF Base Darwin was a bustling hive of activity with an important job.

The Combined Air Operations Centre (CAOC) was raised for Exercise Kakadu and headed by Group Captain Warren Ludwig – also Commanding Officer No. 92 Wing.

He said the role of the CAOC was to coordinate air activity during the exercise.

“The CAOC acts as a control hub for flying activities,” Group Captain Ludwig said.

“It’s a conduit for all air elements – No.s 75 and 79 Squadrons, Orions from No. 92 Wing, Royal New Zealand Air Force, Pel-Air and Raytheon-contracted aircraft.”

The CAOC looked at requests for tasking, and in the case of Exercise Kakadu, the tasking mostly came from the Navy.

“There’ll be various requests from the commander at sea,” he said.

“From there we assign assets according to priority. There’s a free-play phase, but the rest of the flying is scripted.”
Group Captain Ludwig said that as the air space was used by civilian aircraft and CoastWatch, deconfliction of air space was one of the main challenges for the CAOC.

“Airspace deconfliction can be a problem with an exercise of this size,” he said.

“With civilian aircraft, Coastwatch and military aircraft in the air space, careful coordination needs to be conducted.
“Real time communication could create interoperability barriers.”

Above all, safety during the exercise had been of paramount importance.

He said the exercise had been the perfect opportunity to build regional ties.

“This exercise pulls together countries within the Asia-Pacific region to operate with the Australian Air Force and Navy,” Group Captain Ludwig said.

Military aircraft and vessels from New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, PNG and Indonesia had all come to Australia to be part of this large exercise.

“We’re supporting the RAN, and if they’re not happy, we haven’t achieved our goals,” he said.

He said that while the Navy was the supported force, each air element had prescribed unit goals as well.

No.79 Squadron had provided fleet support and ran a conversion course for newly qualified pilots.

He said the area of operations for flying was north of the Tiwi Islands and west of Darwin.

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