00:00:00
Speaker 1: Now as I touched on a major defense training exercise involving tiger attack helicopters. It is set to begin today in the Adelaide River region. Now locals are being warned to expect an increase in aircraft and vehicle movements and noise over the next four days as part of exercise Griffin Walk. Now joining me in the studio is Commanding Officer of First Aviation Regiment, Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Sherry. Good morning to you.
00:00:30
Speaker 2: Matt goodakatie. How are you?
00:00:31
Speaker 1: Yeah? Really good? Lovely to have you on the show. Now, First off, what does the First Aviation Regiment do?
00:00:37
Speaker 2: So, the First Aviation Regiment is Army's only attack helicopter regiment, and what we do is we provide reconnaissance, strike and coordination effects for the Army and the rest of defense as well.
00:00:49
Speaker 1: Sounds like an important job, a very important job, and no doubt a lot of that training is incredibly important. Tell us a bit more about this exercise exercise and what's involved.
00:01:00
Speaker 2: Griffin Walk as an opportunity for us to train some foundation skills nest through for our mission, specifically for Adelaide River. If you think of our capability like a Formula One team. We've got a pit crew the same as they do. And our pit crew though, needs to set up our mobile stations, our mobile pit stops anywhere we ask them to, and so we're asking them to set that up at Adelaide River Township this week where our aircraft can come into and out of receive fuel, simulated ordinance, as well as technical support from our maintainers there.
00:01:31
Speaker 1: Have you had much discussion with the locals around there, They'd be pretty like it'd be a lot happening for them, wouldn't it. They'd be pretty excited, I'd imagine. Yeah.
00:01:39
Speaker 2: So we've been down there a few times and speaking with both the caretaker staff, the council, and definitely the local pub there to let them know we'll be coming through and they're really excited about having a resident there this week.
00:01:52
Speaker 1: So why is the training important and what skills are going to be put to the teest?
00:01:57
Speaker 2: So for the team that's going to be down there at Adelaide River having the ability to go to a new environment and site at that mobile service station, that mobile pit lane, roll out the trucks with all the fuel and the ordinance to be able to side an appropriate place for a helicopter to land and take off and continue to provide support when the aircraft land with technical support.
00:02:24
Speaker 1: So talk me through the aircraft that are used and what it's like. I suppose being involved in a training exercise like this.
00:02:32
Speaker 2: I saw our aircraft as a Tiger reconnaissance helicopter. We've been operating that for the last twenty years and here in Darwin. It's an aircraft that has both weapons systems and sensors and a large suite of communications which enable us the network across the force. For this exercise, we'll be running from Adelaide River to a few places around the Northern Territory, but most likely around the Mount Bundy training area. But giving us the oppertunity to exercise at long range gives us the chance for that ground crew to get some really great foundation training.
00:03:07
Speaker 1: So how many aircraft and how many personnel are going to be involved in total?
00:03:12
Speaker 2: So we've got one hundred and ninety people in the regiment in Darwin here and of those down at Adelaide River you can expect to see around thirty personnel, some increased vehicle traffic and up to four aircraft a day arriving and departing multiple times into the showgrounds there at Adelaide River, and.
00:03:31
Speaker 1: So will the public be able to get a bit closer but be up close and personal or not really.
00:03:38
Speaker 2: So for everyone's safety, I'd ask everyone to just keep some distance away from the aircraft as they take off on land, but they're welcome to pull over on the side of the road and obviously where it's safe to do so and look out. But if for those that want to get a bit more up close and personal, the opportunity is there at the Robertson Barracks Open Day in August, where people will be able to see the aircraft flying as well as see the aircraft on the ground and speak to the crew that make it work.
00:04:03
Speaker 1: I mean, paint a bit of a picture for us. I suppose for US civilians, you know, thinking about these aircraft flying around at the Adelaide River area and then thinking about, you know, the different military vehicles and that kind of thing placed around the around that area, is it going to be quite a site for locals?
00:04:20
Speaker 2: Look, I would say locals will just notice a slight increase in the amount of heavy vehicle traffic. There will be some aircraft that fly low on arrival and departure. But I would not expect a significant disruption to the local lives there at Adelaide River.
00:04:35
Speaker 1: What about when it comes to weapons carrying weapons and are the aircraft going to be sort of loaded with dummy ammunition?
00:04:43
Speaker 2: That's right, So the aircraft are always fitted with our weapon systems, but the crew on the ground there will be loading inert that's dummy ammunition, and that's important for their training. But there is absolutely no risk from an ordinance perspective to the locals there at Adelaide River.
00:04:57
Speaker 1: And just as he's involved in this exercise, have we got any partner nations.
00:05:01
Speaker 2: Just Australians this one. It's a great chance for us to get out train our skills before we move on to training with those multinational partners later in the year.
00:05:08
Speaker 1: Yeah. How important is it for you guys to be able to get to do exercises like this and you know, to be out and about and testing your skills.
00:05:18
Speaker 2: I guess well, Look, we've been residents here in Darwin for the last thirty years and what I would say about this is a wonderful place for us to train, great expanse and really supportive community. So a chance for us to really stretch our legs, which sometimes when we operate in other places not so apparent, but really great work from the Darwin community support us to do this.
00:05:40
Speaker 1: Now, I know the First Aviation Regiment is in the process of moving from Darwin to Townsville. Why is that happening?
00:05:47
Speaker 2: That's right, so we have started our transition. We are replacing our Tiger helicopter with a new helicopter, the Apache Guardian, and in order to co locate that aircraft with our CH forty seven Chinook helicopter in Townsville, we hope to have the ability to generate, sustain, and deploy a more resilient helicopter force with all being in the same location in Townsville.
00:06:09
Speaker 1: Well. Commanding Officer of First Aviation Regiment, Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Sherry. I really appreciate you joining us in the studio this morning. Thank you so much for your time, and I'm sure that people will be probably quite excited when they see those choppers up in the up in the air around the Adelaide River area.
00:06:26
Speaker 2: Thanks very much, Katie, Thank you
Speaker 1: Now as I touched on a major defense training exercise involving tiger attack helicopters. It is set to begin today in the Adelaide River region. Now locals are being warned to expect an increase in aircraft and vehicle movements and noise over the next four days as part of exercise Griffin Walk. Now joining me in the studio is Commanding Officer of First Aviation Regiment, Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Sherry. Good morning to you.
00:00:30
Speaker 2: Matt goodakatie. How are you?
00:00:31
Speaker 1: Yeah? Really good? Lovely to have you on the show. Now, First off, what does the First Aviation Regiment do?
00:00:37
Speaker 2: So, the First Aviation Regiment is Army's only attack helicopter regiment, and what we do is we provide reconnaissance, strike and coordination effects for the Army and the rest of defense as well.
00:00:49
Speaker 1: Sounds like an important job, a very important job, and no doubt a lot of that training is incredibly important. Tell us a bit more about this exercise exercise and what's involved.
00:01:00
Speaker 2: Griffin Walk as an opportunity for us to train some foundation skills nest through for our mission, specifically for Adelaide River. If you think of our capability like a Formula One team. We've got a pit crew the same as they do. And our pit crew though, needs to set up our mobile stations, our mobile pit stops anywhere we ask them to, and so we're asking them to set that up at Adelaide River Township this week where our aircraft can come into and out of receive fuel, simulated ordinance, as well as technical support from our maintainers there.
00:01:31
Speaker 1: Have you had much discussion with the locals around there, They'd be pretty like it'd be a lot happening for them, wouldn't it. They'd be pretty excited, I'd imagine. Yeah.
00:01:39
Speaker 2: So we've been down there a few times and speaking with both the caretaker staff, the council, and definitely the local pub there to let them know we'll be coming through and they're really excited about having a resident there this week.
00:01:52
Speaker 1: So why is the training important and what skills are going to be put to the teest?
00:01:57
Speaker 2: So for the team that's going to be down there at Adelaide River having the ability to go to a new environment and site at that mobile service station, that mobile pit lane, roll out the trucks with all the fuel and the ordinance to be able to side an appropriate place for a helicopter to land and take off and continue to provide support when the aircraft land with technical support.
00:02:24
Speaker 1: So talk me through the aircraft that are used and what it's like. I suppose being involved in a training exercise like this.
00:02:32
Speaker 2: I saw our aircraft as a Tiger reconnaissance helicopter. We've been operating that for the last twenty years and here in Darwin. It's an aircraft that has both weapons systems and sensors and a large suite of communications which enable us the network across the force. For this exercise, we'll be running from Adelaide River to a few places around the Northern Territory, but most likely around the Mount Bundy training area. But giving us the oppertunity to exercise at long range gives us the chance for that ground crew to get some really great foundation training.
00:03:07
Speaker 1: So how many aircraft and how many personnel are going to be involved in total?
00:03:12
Speaker 2: So we've got one hundred and ninety people in the regiment in Darwin here and of those down at Adelaide River you can expect to see around thirty personnel, some increased vehicle traffic and up to four aircraft a day arriving and departing multiple times into the showgrounds there at Adelaide River, and.
00:03:31
Speaker 1: So will the public be able to get a bit closer but be up close and personal or not really.
00:03:38
Speaker 2: So for everyone's safety, I'd ask everyone to just keep some distance away from the aircraft as they take off on land, but they're welcome to pull over on the side of the road and obviously where it's safe to do so and look out. But if for those that want to get a bit more up close and personal, the opportunity is there at the Robertson Barracks Open Day in August, where people will be able to see the aircraft flying as well as see the aircraft on the ground and speak to the crew that make it work.
00:04:03
Speaker 1: I mean, paint a bit of a picture for us. I suppose for US civilians, you know, thinking about these aircraft flying around at the Adelaide River area and then thinking about, you know, the different military vehicles and that kind of thing placed around the around that area, is it going to be quite a site for locals?
00:04:20
Speaker 2: Look, I would say locals will just notice a slight increase in the amount of heavy vehicle traffic. There will be some aircraft that fly low on arrival and departure. But I would not expect a significant disruption to the local lives there at Adelaide River.
00:04:35
Speaker 1: What about when it comes to weapons carrying weapons and are the aircraft going to be sort of loaded with dummy ammunition?
00:04:43
Speaker 2: That's right, So the aircraft are always fitted with our weapon systems, but the crew on the ground there will be loading inert that's dummy ammunition, and that's important for their training. But there is absolutely no risk from an ordinance perspective to the locals there at Adelaide River.
00:04:57
Speaker 1: And just as he's involved in this exercise, have we got any partner nations.
00:05:01
Speaker 2: Just Australians this one. It's a great chance for us to get out train our skills before we move on to training with those multinational partners later in the year.
00:05:08
Speaker 1: Yeah. How important is it for you guys to be able to get to do exercises like this and you know, to be out and about and testing your skills.
00:05:18
Speaker 2: I guess well, Look, we've been residents here in Darwin for the last thirty years and what I would say about this is a wonderful place for us to train, great expanse and really supportive community. So a chance for us to really stretch our legs, which sometimes when we operate in other places not so apparent, but really great work from the Darwin community support us to do this.
00:05:40
Speaker 1: Now, I know the First Aviation Regiment is in the process of moving from Darwin to Townsville. Why is that happening?
00:05:47
Speaker 2: That's right, so we have started our transition. We are replacing our Tiger helicopter with a new helicopter, the Apache Guardian, and in order to co locate that aircraft with our CH forty seven Chinook helicopter in Townsville, we hope to have the ability to generate, sustain, and deploy a more resilient helicopter force with all being in the same location in Townsville.
00:06:09
Speaker 1: Well. Commanding Officer of First Aviation Regiment, Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Sherry. I really appreciate you joining us in the studio this morning. Thank you so much for your time, and I'm sure that people will be probably quite excited when they see those choppers up in the up in the air around the Adelaide River area.
00:06:26
Speaker 2: Thanks very much, Katie, Thank you
