Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Commanding Officer RAAF Darwin, Wing Commander Jim Collison says Exercise Singaroo is underway involving the Singapore Navy and Air Force

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Commanding Officer RAAF Darwin, Wing Commander Jim Collison says Exercise Singaroo is underway involving the Singapore Navy and Air Force · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Well, we know that we've recently obviously had Exercise pitch
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Black and there's been Exercise Kakadoo as well. But following
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: on from this, the Republic of Singapore Air Force are
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: going to be remaining at the R Double AF base
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: here in Darwen until the seventh of October as I
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: understand it. Now. Joining me on the line right now
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: is Commanding Officer of the R Double AF Darwen, Wing
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Commander Jim Collison.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Jim.
• 0:27
  Speaker 3: Good morning Katie. Thanks for having me on the show again.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, great to have you on.
• 0:30
  Speaker 3: Now.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: Jim, tell us a little bit more about what the
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: Singapore Air Force are doing in Darwin at the moment.
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah, sure, Katie. So the Singapore Air Force have come over,
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: they participated in Pitch Black. They then followed on and
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: participated in Exercise Kakadoo as well with the Australian Royal
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: Australian Navy. They're maintaining presence here until about the seventh
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: eighth of October, and during that time they're participating in
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: Exercise Singer, which is a Navy bilateral exercise, and they're
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: also doing some unilateral exercising themselves out in the in
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: the vast and excellent airspace that we've got up here
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: in Daylhenn.
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: How good is that name? Singer Arroo?
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: I like it.
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: Yes, it's pretty good, isn't it?
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: It is?
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  Speaker 2: So how many members have they got here at the moment.
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: At the moment, they've got a couple of one hundred Singaporeans,
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  Speaker 3: They've got a couple of different types of jets, they've
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: got their fifteen and their sixteen aircraft here, and they've
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: also got one of their multi roll tankers here as well.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: And is it the kind of thing, like, is it
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: the kind of exercise where you know, people living in
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: Darwin and Palmerston are going to see different aircraft in
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  Speaker 1: the skies like we did with Exercise Pitch Black.
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah, a little bit, probably to a much diminished proportion
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: than they saw during Pitch Black. Obviously we had a
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  Speaker 3: bunch of different nations and a stack of different aircraft
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: primarily during this phase. Now it's you know, the participation
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: rate has come down significantly since then, and we've got
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: the you know, the Singaporean Air Force particularly flying out
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  Speaker 3: with the Royal Australian Navy and the Singaporean Navy who
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: are out in the in the area, and so mostly
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: it'll just be those unique aircraft to Singapore, those fifteens
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: and those are sixteams.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah right, and so will there I guess taking into
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: account that it sounds as though it's on the water
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: and also in the air, will there be much that
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: you know that Territorians can see when it comes to
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  Speaker 1: the waters?
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: Look, probably not. They might see some of the Singaporean
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: vessels that have pulled into port down there in town,
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  Speaker 3: but I'll probably leave that commentary more to her to
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: Navy can pat this. But yeah, definitely when those Singaporean
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: vessels came into to port at the end of Kakadu
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  Speaker 3: and they probably will see potentially some of those vessels
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: coming at the end of Singareoo as well.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah right, And Jim is most of the you know,
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: most of those aircraft departures and things. Are they going
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: to be happening in daytime hours with the exercise.
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely. So we've narrowed down that window significantly since
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: the end of Pitch Black and Diamond Storm and the
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: other exercises that we've had during the year. It'll be
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: a small morning wave mostly from about eight o'clock to
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: midday in the morning and then one thirty to four
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: thirty in the afternoon, they won't be too many aircraft flying,
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: so a significant reduction since Pitchblack. Yeah, and I think
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: that's that's pretty important. But I mean, ultimately, this is
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: great training for the Singaporeans. It's excellent for our interoperability,
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: and it's essential to build all of that relationship with
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: those foreign nations during this exercise period.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: Well, Jim, it's always good to catch up and always
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: good to find out what is going on around the place.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: It seems like it's been such a busy time for
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: our for our air force.
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: It sure has. You know, there's been a I guess
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: you know, all of these exercises have probably been conducted
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: in the past. We have shifted where which Black has
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: seated this year mainly to maintain some sort of distance
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: between the school holiday period around the middle of the year,
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  Speaker 3: so Pitch Black was sitting a little bit later this year.
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: But I think primarily it probably feels like it's been
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: a super intense period because we haven't done this thing
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: for four years due to the delays and cancelations that
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: we had due to COVID in twenty twenty.
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a very good point.
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: Well, Jim Collison, the Commanding Officer of THEAAF Darwin, It's
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: always good to catch up with you.
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: Thanks so much for your time this morning.
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: Oh thanks for having me on again, Katie, great to
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: talk to you too.
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: Thank you