A new eye on the north skies

An MC-55A Peregrine from 10SQN deployed to RAAF Base Darwin in June for its first operational test and evaluation (OT&E) flights.

OT&E flights provide the initial RAAF testing of aircraft and support systems, and contribute to Defence’s real-time picture of the region, including Australia’s maritime approaches.

The missions from the Top End are similar to maritime surveillance flights conducted by RAAF P-8A Poseidons.

RAAF introduced the first of four MC-55As to service in January, providing Defence with a first-of-type airborne intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and electronic warfare platform capability.

Director General of Air Command Operations AIRCDRE Peter Robinson said MC-55A deployments would be coordinated with other Defence assets and capabilities.

“The MC-55A complements existing capabilities like the P-8A Poseidon and the incoming MQ-4C Triton, allowing Defence to maintain a persistent situational awareness of our primary area of military interest,” AIRCDRE Robinson said.

“While the MC-55A is a new capability for Defence, its deployment to Darwin is consistent with the RAAF’s nine-decade practice of conducting surveillance missions from Australia’s Top End.”

In late 1939, a newly established RAAF 12SQN flew the first rudimentary aerial reconnaissance missions from Darwin.

At the time, it relied on an assortment of twin-engine Avro Anson light bombers, Wirraway trainers and open-cockpit Hawker Demon biplanes.

As the war moved closer to Australia, the introduction of Catalina flying boats allowed the RAAF to conduct long-range missions into South-East Asia.

The RAAF Catalina missions were slow and dangerous patrols, flown to detect and monitor enemy naval activity throughout the region.

In the post-war era, missions to conduct Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) missions were flown by increasingly capable and sophisticated aircraft, beginning with the Avro Lincoln and then the Lockheed Neptune. 

From 1968 until 2023, generations of RAAF aviators flew ISR missions across Australia’s northern maritime approaches in variants of the P-3 Orion.

The introduction of the P-8A Poseidon in 2016 signalled a new generation of ISR platforms that provided Defence with a real-time ‘picture’ of the region.

“The 2026 National Defence Strategy tasks us to contribute to the collective security of the Indo-Pacific,” AIRCDRE Robinson said.

“A key part of how we achieve this is through these ISR deployments, which provide knowledge of what is happening in our region and is foundational to making informed decisions.

“Like their predecessors, aviators flying the MC-55A will conduct their missions in accordance with international law, exercising the right to freedom of navigation and overflight in international waters and airspace.”