Cutting edge Top End debut

Volume 48, No. 14, August 10, 2006
By FLGOFF Julia Ravell

ON GUARD: LAC’s Scott Doggett, Phil Boys and Shane Bush keep watch over the TASAR. Photo by LAC David Gibbs.

CUTTING edge technology met “Leyland” country when the Air Force’s new transportable air surveillance radar (TASAR) made its Service debut at Exercise Pitch Black.

The first unit of its type in the country, and developed by Raytheon at a cost of more than $20 million, the mobile radar unit performed faultlessly in its first field test at RAAF Base Curtin in the Kimberley region.

“Prior to the TASAR, Curtin made do with a mobile tower for line-of-sight air traffic control,” said SQNLDR Andrew Bannister, the engineer-turned-air traffic controller who oversaw testing and calibration of the new radar.

“There’s been a lot of civilian traffic flying in and out of mines, as well as Pitch Black’s Air Force traffic – F-111s, C-130s and B-707s – and we’ve been tracking in excess of 80 air movements a day. Curtin’s been a very busy place.

“Now we’re not just relying on line-of-sight control. We can see for more than 150 miles with the new system. It makes for safer and much more efficient air traffic control,” he said.

Although it took four semi-trailers to haul the unit from Williamtown to its temporary location at Curtin and about a dozen technical staff to set it up, only three staff were required to calibrate and certify it for its deployment at Pitch Black.

The fully-calibrated system was handed over to air traffic controllers from 44WG on July 26 – just in time for the arrival of the first F-111s and B-707s.

TASAR will be useful to the Air Force for operational deployments anywhere in the world.

“The operating systems are exactly the same as the ones used on fixed sites. Personnel don’t need any extra training to run the system,” SQNLDR Bannister said.

“The system’s flexibility really expands 44WG’s ability to serve the needs of the Air Commander,” he said.

 

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