C-17A Globemasters – the heavy-lifting workhorses of Defence – have arrived at Amberley for a biannual group exercise.
RAAF’s No. 36 Squadron and the United States Pacific Air Forces (PACAF) 535th Airlift Squadron have combined with the UK for the training missions.
It is the first time the Royal Air Force (RAF) No. 99 Squadron will participate in the exercise.
Exercise Global Dexterity allows C-17A aircrew and technicians to build aviator skills with foreign counterparts.
Commanding Officer of RAAF No. 36 Squadron Scott Hyland said the exercise helped ensure RAAF aviators could support operations at short notice.
“The C-17A is well suited to delivering critical personnel and large amounts of cargo across the Indo-Pacific, but the people and our relationships are what allow us to do this quickly and effectively,” Wing Commander Hyland said.
“Through Exercise Global Dexterity, we’ve built a relationship with the United States PACAF C-17A community that allows us to fly and fix each other’s aircraft as a blended workforce, greatly increasing our flexibility during operations.
“The value of these aircraft and their workforce is evident when we deploy together in the region, whether it be in support of peacekeeping operations, non-combatant evacuations, or to deliver a time-critical response to a natural disaster.”
Exercise Global Dexterity 23-2 will involve low-level formation training and high-level air-to-air refuelling from RAAF KC-30As.
“With the cooperation of the Papua New Guinea Government, we will also conduct air mobility missions to Papua New Guinea during Exercise Global Dexterity 23-2,” Wing Commander Hyland said.
“We are grateful for the opportunity to test our skills in Papua New Guinea, which is one of the world’s most complex flying environments.”
“The training we achieve during Exercise Global Dexterity ensures that we can deliver help anywhere in the Indo-Pacific.
“We welcome the United Kingdom’s debut in Exercise Global Dexterity and believe it will yield great benefit to the wider Indo-Pacific community on future operations, and we thank the Government and community of Papua New Guinea for their support.”
Australia introduced an initial fleet of four C-17As between 2006 and 2008.
Additional aircraft were acquired in 2011, 2012, and 2015.
Based at Amberley, all eight C-17As are operated by No. 36 Squadron.
C-17As have supported personnel on deployments and been an integral part of disaster relief and humanitarian missions.
