Australian Army Blackhawks to move to Sydney to support Special Ops Command

[Aussie Digger]

BLACK HAWK HELICOPTERS TO BE BASED IN SYDNEY
​

One of the Australian Army’s Black Hawk helicopter squadrons will relocate to Holsworthy Barracks near Sydney from the end of next year to boost the ability of Australia’s Special Forces to respond to a terrorist threat on the east coast of Australia.

Defence Minister Robert Hill said basing the Army’s 171 Aviation Squadron at Holsworthy will provide a major new training and operational capability for the Special Forces on the East Coast.

171 Aviation Squadron will be relocated from Townsville in Queensland, and be replaced by the new MRH 90 Troop Lift Helicopter Squadron. The new MRH 90 helicopters will be built at Australian Aerospace in Brisbane and delivered to Townsville from the end of 2007.

"Since the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, the Howard Government has committed more than $1.3 billion to the ADF to fight the war against terrorism," Senator Hill said.

"Special Forces are a key part of Australia’s anti-terrorism capabilities. They are considered amongst the most capable Special Forces in the world and this initiative will further strengthen Australia’s domestic and offshore security capabilities.

"The Black Hawk Squadron will work with the soldiers of Special Operations Command including the Tactical Assault Group at Holsworthy and will provide enhanced mobility and training for this critical capability.

"The Tactical Assault Group’s primary role is to respond to terrorist threats against Australia.

"The basing of the helicopter squadron at Holsworthy will improve the training of our Special Forces in counter terrorism and will be used to train Special Forces, commandos and the Incident Response Regiment."

The relocation will involve the construction of new facilities to cater for the relocation of approximately 200 personnel, including new hangars and working accommodation.

The construction project will add to the program of works at Holsworthy to provide vital accommodation and modern infrastructure to allow the majority of the Sydney based Special Forces elements to be centralised at the one location.

The redevelopment project will deliver a dedicated precinct to accommodate two key units of Special Operations Command, the 4th Battalion Royal Australian Regiment (Commando) – including the Tactical Assault Group (East) - and the Incident Response Regiment. About 3000 personnel are currently based at Holsworthy.

Media Note: File vision of Special Forces and Black Hawks will be fed to networks via Parliament House bureaux.

Here's also some relevant and interesting info from Senator HILL's press conference re: the Blackhawk move:

Journalist:

Will they be available to the rest of the ADF following the move, or are they allocated specifically just for the Special Forces?

Senator Hill:

Well, it would depend on the circumstances, but the idea is that they will be available to enhance our counter-terrorism capability, and therefore primarily Special Forces. We will also look at ways in which the aircraft themselves might be further enhanced in coming years. We haven’t had helicopters that have been dedicated to Special Forces in the past, and therefore some capabilities that you find on American Special Forces helicopters, for example, we don’t have. Another step, there’s always more steps, but another step will now be to look at whether these helicopters should be further enhanced with additional capabilities.

Journalist:

And where does the rest of the AIR9000 program stand at the moment? I understand it’s in limbo, phases two and four?

Senator Hill:

Well no, nothing’s in – phases two and four were always split, one was phase two...

Journalist:

But then they were merged together and then...

Senator Hill:

No, no, well some people said they were merged, but Government didn’t ever merge them. For those who are wondering what all this is about, one phase was to purchase an extra squadron of helicopters, and that decision has been taken, another phase is what they do with the Black Hawks, in terms of their whole of life extension, whether we engage – whether we extend their life through a major refurbishing, whether we replace them with another fleet of Black Hawks, or whether we replace them with further MRH 90s, and that’s the next phase, and that was due to be decided by Government in this coming financial year.

Journalist:

Are you sticking to that time frame?

Senator Hill:

Yes, we’re working to the timetable.

Obtained from www.defence.gov.au

Images are available at:

http://www.defence.gov.au/media/download/2005/Aug/20050801/20050730ran8099889_023_lo.jpg

http://www.defence.gov.au/media/download/2005/Aug/20050801/20050730ran8099889_051_lo.jpg

http://www.defence.gov.au/media/download/2005/Aug/20050801/20050730ran8099889_087_lo.jpg

There were some interesting comments from Senator HILL in that interview. 1. It seems those Blackhawks will be getting some MH-60 style upgrades. 2. It also seems that AIR-9000 will now be going ahead, but with some Blackhawks remaining to serve the Special Forces. Given this, I wouldn't be surprised to see an additional order for more MRH-90's from Government soon...

 

[pepsi]

I know this isn't related to the blackhawks or anything, but are those guys wearing paintball masks?

I saw it on the news, and they look just like the paintball mask and goggles i had ages ago, i was wondering if they are just for the cameras, or if they are actually more high tech than my paintball gear, lol

 

[cherry]

So if an entire squadron (12) of Blackhawks are going to be allocated to the Tactical Assault Group on the east coast, will the TAG on the west coast also be recieving 12 Blackhawks to support them? If this is so, then a total of 24 Blackhawks will need to be retained and upgraded to the latest special forces standard. This may hopefully mean that we will have 24 Blackhawks solely dedicated to our special forces and up to 40 MRH-90 helos for regular army.

 

[Aussie Digger]

So if an entire squadron (12) of Blackhawks are going to be allocated to the Tactical Assault Group on the east coast, will the TAG on the west coast also be recieving 12 Blackhawks to support them? If this is so, then a total of 24 Blackhawks will need to be retained and upgraded to the latest special forces standard. This may hopefully mean that we will have 24 Blackhawks solely dedicated to our special forces and up to 40 MRH-90 helos for regular army.

That'd be a nice capability enhancement, but I don't think a Squadron will be allocated to TAG West. Rather the Squadron will probably deploy between the 2 bases as required. Also these helo's despite the hype, won't only be used for CT duties. They will support the FULL range of specwarrie operations.

For a squadron to be maintained permanently in the West, the ADF would require 3 establishments capable of maintaining the Blackhawks (Oakey, Holsworthy, Campbell Barracks WA) and maintain 3 sets of equipment to maintain them. At present the ADF only operates the Blackhawk "permanently" in 2 locations and will eventually do so again once the Blackhawks are fully removed from Townsville...

 

[cherry]

This doesn't make any sense at all! Why do the ADF ALWAYS have to do things in half measures. Why does one TAG get helos and the other doesn't? Is it all because of a simple thing such as support facilities? Why don't they just issue push bikes to our soldiers for their transport, then again, this may prove too difficult for ADF and government, I'm sure they could stuff that up if they tried. So what if our special forces need helos for certain operations on the west coast?

 

[Aussie Digger]

Welcome to the "Australian way" of doing things... IMHO, we're lucky to even HAVE a TAG on the West Coast. The ADF wanted to disband the SASR maintained TAG and hand the role over solely to the Commando's. It's only been maintained because of the current terrorism "crisis".

According to the ADF, it places too great a strain on SASR and reduces their "wartime" capability significantly. SASR due to the size of our Army, is limited to 3 squadrons only. 22nd SAS for instance, currently operates 5 squadrons plus a reserve squadron, ie: double the size of our regiment.

Once the current terrorism threat dies down, I'll bet anyone, anything they like, TAG West will be retired. Domestic Counter Terrorism IS primarily a police role afterall, and it is far more likely that THEY would have to deal with any incidents, than TAG East OR West would.

The military has VERY little to do in the "war on terror" despite the media and would only be used in a Domestic capacity in the absolute WORST case scenario. It's been Police Tactical Teams that have taken down the terrorists in London and it's difficult to see a larger terrorist operation than that occuring in Australia.

IMHO, the ADF's role in combating any domestic terrorist incidents would be logistical and via the Incident Response Regiment, rather than the lead CT role from either TAG East or West.

I'm certain arrangements have been made for the provision of helo's for TAG West should they ever require them. The Blackhawks would deploy for any protracted incidents/operations. Any short term incidents would likely be resolved by the Police before TAG could deploy anyway...