Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Katie Woolf spoke with Commanding Officer of RAAF Base Darwin Wing Commander Andrew ‘Andros’ Anthony

Transcript

Katie Woolf spoke with Commanding Officer of RAAF Base Darwin Wing Commander Andrew ‘Andros’ Anthony · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: If you want to know what's happening on the local
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: political landscape, Katie Wolf has it covered on three sixty.
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  Speaker 1: Every one is listening Mixed one oh four point nine.
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  Speaker 2: We have had such a busy morning finding out about
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  Speaker 2: what's going on around the top end. And joining me
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  Speaker 2: in the studio right now is the commanding officer of
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  Speaker 2: THEBAF base here in Darwin, Wing Commander Andrew andros Anthony.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning to.
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  Speaker 1: You morning, Katie.
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  Speaker 2: How are you very well now? Mate? We're just talking
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  Speaker 2: in the break and you guys are gearing up for
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  Speaker 2: an exercise that begins on Monday, does.
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  Speaker 1: Nash, Yeah, that's correct, Katie.
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  Speaker 3: So the jets arrived earlier this week, but they're basically
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  Speaker 3: they've come in there preparing and flying starts on Monday.
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  Speaker 3: The fast Jets will be operating from Raft based Darwin
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  Speaker 3: and it's it's a great opportunity for the North to
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  Speaker 3: get to have some fast jets operating again after the
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  Speaker 3: break that we had in twenty twenty.
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  Speaker 2: How many are we talking, it's a bit.
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  Speaker 1: About twenty five aircraft on Raft based Darwin.
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  Speaker 3: There are some more aircraft participating from Raft based Tindall,
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  Speaker 3: the Catherine as well.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, So is it just out like it's just the
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  Speaker 2: forces or it's just the crews that are based here
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  Speaker 2: in the Northern Territory. Do we have anyone coming from
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  Speaker 2: anywhere else at this for this one?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, we've actually got our squadrons from Williamtown near Newcastle. Yeah,
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  Speaker 3: also Ambly near Brisbane, and I think we've got some
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  Speaker 3: SEE one thirties that are participating from Raft Base Richmond
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  Speaker 3: near Sydney, so another collection. It really is the first
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  Speaker 3: time that we've had all of these different platforms working
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  Speaker 3: together on the one activity.
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  Speaker 2: And so around twenty five aircraft. Is there more than
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  Speaker 2: that are going to arrive as well? Or is it
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  Speaker 2: what's it like? What are we talking total in terms
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  Speaker 2: of what we're going to see in the sky.
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  Speaker 3: Certainly so there's about forty aircraft in total, but we
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  Speaker 3: won't see them all because they'll be joining each other
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  Speaker 3: in the space south in the training area. About twenty
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  Speaker 3: five is what we expect to see on the base.
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  Speaker 3: Of course, the exercise isn't the only thing that we've
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  Speaker 3: got going on at the moment. We've still got the
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  Speaker 3: repatriation flights coming through. We're still supporting other aircraft movements
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  Speaker 3: from the base, the activities that we're always supporting.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, right, does that make it like, does that make
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  Speaker 2: it a difficult juggle?
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  Speaker 3: It's challenging, but that's their good problems to have is
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  Speaker 3: being busy and supporting the Australian government, Australian communities.
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  Speaker 1: What we do. We really appreciate the support we get
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  Speaker 1: from the MT.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. Look, how many personnel then are going to be
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  Speaker 2: involved in the exercise.
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  Speaker 3: We've got only five hundred personnel that have come onto
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  Speaker 3: Raft Base Darwin with all the visiting squadrons to help
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  Speaker 3: support this exercise. In addition to the personnel that we
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  Speaker 3: have here both our regular about five hundred regular personnel
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  Speaker 3: and the Marines who are here now there's about five
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  Speaker 3: hundred of them with their Air Combat Element and that's
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  Speaker 3: just on the Raft Base.
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  Speaker 1: Of course, there's more Marines on other defense establishments in
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  Speaker 1: the area as well.
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  Speaker 2: Now, Andrew, I know that one of the biggest questions
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  Speaker 2: people are going to be asking as they're listening right
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  Speaker 2: now is what kind of aircraft are they going to see?
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  Speaker 3: It really is a great opportunity to see a good
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  Speaker 3: mix this time around. So we've got the F thirty
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  Speaker 3: five Joint strike fighter. Its first deployment within Australia, so
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  Speaker 3: a big moment for the air Force.
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  Speaker 2: What does it look like like? Are we going to
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  Speaker 2: be able to tell if we're actually seeing us?
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  Speaker 3: She'll notice that it is pretty it's the stealthiest fighter
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  Speaker 3: we've had. It's really slick and slim line, so it
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  Speaker 3: will stand out. We also have our familiar hornets, the
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  Speaker 3: super hornets, a little different to the classics that you
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  Speaker 3: see in Tindle, but generally the same shape. We've got
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  Speaker 3: the wedge tail the E seven A. It's a airborne
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  Speaker 3: early warning and control aircraft. It's like it's got a
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  Speaker 3: big surfboard on the top there, which is its radar.
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  Speaker 3: He's participating. We've got a tanker aircraft, a KC thirty
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  Speaker 3: which looks like.
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  Speaker 1: A really big airliner.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, playing as well, and some some one thirty hercules participating.
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  Speaker 3: So there's a whole stretch of aircraft. For those that
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  Speaker 3: like looking at aircraft, those aviation buffs, they're going to
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  Speaker 3: love it.
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  Speaker 2: Well, that's the thing, and there's actually so many of
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  Speaker 2: them in the community. I've got friends that you know,
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  Speaker 2: I didn't even realize for aviation buffs, and then they
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  Speaker 2: go to me, oh, ye have I'm parked near the
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  Speaker 2: runway at different times, you know, just to see certain
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  Speaker 2: planes arriving. So then when something like this is going on,
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  Speaker 2: everybody's keeping an eye in the sky.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, so it is going to be exciting. Makatie.
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  Speaker 3: Of course, we make a lot of noise, and that's
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  Speaker 3: one of the downsides of having the fighters here. We're
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  Speaker 3: doing everything we can, and we really do appreciate the
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  Speaker 3: support we get from the community up here. There will
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  Speaker 3: be some night flying with this exercise, but what we'll
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  Speaker 3: do throughout the evening is when we bring those aircraft
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  Speaker 3: back in, we'll try to get them to come in
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  Speaker 3: a straight, straight and approach. They'll come in on lower
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  Speaker 3: throttle settings to reduce the noise around so that we're
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  Speaker 3: not disturbing the community as much as we can.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, so doing all that you can really to try
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  Speaker 2: and minimize that noise as much as possible.
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  Speaker 1: One hundred percent.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, but I guess we also need to sort of
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  Speaker 2: remind ourselves that we live in a defense town. You know,
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  Speaker 2: we do live somewhere where these types of exercises are
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  Speaker 2: going to happen, and it's actually you know, it is
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  Speaker 2: a good thing as well. It's a good thing for
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  Speaker 2: the community in terms of the economy too. You're talking
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  Speaker 2: about personnel arriving here from other locations around around Australia.
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  Speaker 2: It is hopefully a good thing for us in terms
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  Speaker 2: of you know, getting things moving.
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  Speaker 3: Ketty, that's right, and I can tell you that those
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  Speaker 3: personnel that are here from down south, they're absolutely loving it.
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  Speaker 3: They're a little jealous, I think of us that get
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  Speaker 3: to stay up here more permanently.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's good weather, great weather. Haven't we turned
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  Speaker 2: it on for everybody arriving for Monday?
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  Speaker 3: Certainly have and of course some big events happening around
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  Speaker 3: town as well. So great time to be up in
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  Speaker 3: the north.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it really is. Well, so from Monday we can
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  Speaker 2: expect a bit more action in our skies. And how
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  Speaker 2: long is it running for again?
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  Speaker 3: So from Monday we'll see the flying ops starts. The
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  Speaker 3: jets will continue flying into the fourth of June, and
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  Speaker 3: then we'll start seeing some of the thirty other aircraft
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  Speaker 3: operating right out to the fifteenth June.
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  Speaker 2: Andrew, just lastly, I mean, how important is it really
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  Speaker 2: for our forces to be able to actually be involved
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  Speaker 2: in exercises like this?
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  Speaker 1: One extremely important Katie.
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  Speaker 3: So what this gives us as an opportunity to exercise,
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  Speaker 3: together with multiple platforms, work out how we produce that
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  Speaker 3: capability that we need to to defend Australia and the community.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, Commanding Officer of THEAAF base here in Darwin
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  Speaker 2: Wing Commander Andrew andros Anthony. Lovely to catch up with
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  Speaker 2: you mate.
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  Speaker 1: Thanks for your time, Thanks Katie, always a pleasure