Soldier's aviation career takes flight

For 21-year-old air operations specialist Tpr Cate McNair, arriving in Sabah, Malaysia wasn't just the start of another trip – it was the beginning of her first overseas exercise with Defence.

Involving units from the Australian, Malaysian and United States armies, Exercise Keris Strike is an annual, trilateral activity, focusing on the integration of ground-based and aviation components to create a combined joint live-fire capability and exercise it within the region. 

For young ADF members like Tpr McNair, travelling to such exercises is pivotal for learning to work in operational environments away from home.

Originally from Cabarlah, a small town 20 minutes out of Toowoomba, Tpr McNair could not have imagined this is where she would be at 21.

“When I was in high school, I didn’t really see myself joining Defence. If I could talk to myself back then, I would recommend this job. I wouldn’t change a thing,” she said.

“To be deployed to Malaysia three years down the line is pretty incredible.”

On enlistment in 2023, her sights were squarely on the skies. As an aviation operations specialist from 1 Avn Regt, Tpr McNair has worked within Task Unit Marlin to deliver air operations support for the ARH Tiger and its pilots.

“As an aviation operations specialist, I have been working alongside the pilots to aid in mission planning for our aviation mission planning system, as well as battle tracking.”

“Whenever they take off, we’re able to track where they are and relay any information or issues from the Tactical Operations Centre,” she said.

Tpr McNair is part of 162 Recon Sqn, one of the sub-units within 1 Avn Regt, which operates the Tiger, based at Robertson Barracks in Darwin.

Her time growing up in Australia’s north combined with her ADF training prepared her well for the deployment to Malaysia.

“I’ve been on three gunneries exercises, including one based in Darwin and one in Katherine, NT," she said.

“A gunnery exercise is where we all work together to help the aircraft shoot the gun, while we practise all the other supporting elements of operating the Tiger.

As well as on-the-job training and experience, Ex Keris Strike has a distinct partnership and relationship-building benefit.

Tpr McNair said integrating with members of the United States and Malaysian militaries provided opportunities to learn from each other and build relationships.

“It’s really important that we rehearse this kind of planning and execution of aviation operation, and build confidence and trust in ourselves as a team,” she said.

“This has been great for our aviation capability, to prove that we can deploy as a team and we can successfully deploy it overseas.”

Tpr McNair said exercises like Keris Strike enhance unit cohesion. At home in the NT, the different sections (engineering, aviation, and operations) are more dispersed. Sister sub-unit 161 Recon Sqn, which is based out of Townsville, particularly benefits from experience with a closer team.

“It’s great because we get more opportunities to integrate with other job roles, we are really collaborative,” Tpr McNair said.

“Trusting each other is really important, and it helps to ensure safety.”

Tpr McNair intends to continue with a career in aviation and seek similar opportunities in the future.

“Next year I will post to Townsville, to work with the Apache helicopter. I’d love to see where a career in aviation takes me.”