C-130J EW system put to the test

Two RAAF C-130J Hercules aircraft have been deployed to participate in Exercise Red Flag Alaska 14-2.

Since June 12, a contingent of 68 RAAF personnel has been working from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, alongside other participants from US and Japan.

The exercise is due to conclude on 27 June.

The RAAF C-130Js will debut a recently upgraded electronic warfare self-protection system at the exercise, which will greatly help avert enemy attack.

Commanding Officer for No. 37 Squadron, Wing Commander Darren Goldie, said exercises like Red Flag Alaska were an important training opportunity for his personnel.

“We’ll be flying Hercules on tactical airlift missions as part of a wider group of aircraft that includes strike jets, fighters and surveillance aircraft,” WGCDR Goldie said.

“The training environment at Red Flag Alaska is one of the world’s most complicated recreations of a modern battlespace, with simulated missiles, enemy radar systems, and ‘aggressor’ fighter jets.”

“The aircrew have been developing techniques to use these systems, but Exercise Red Flag Alaska will provide a suitably complex training environment before we ever have to employ it in the real world,” WGCDR Goldie said.