Sustaining F-35A Lightning II operations out of RAAF Base Curtin involves a range of logistics functions from across the RAAF.
For the team of refuelling aviators brought together from units around Australia the presence of an additional six United States Air Force operators helps to ensure the jets are gassed up and ready to go for every mission.
The Officer in Charge of the tanking section, Corporal Jessica Blayden said the USAF refuellers were ready and eager to get on the job following a quick familiarisation session on arrival.
“The response from the USAF team to the familiarisation was that they were largely impressed by our equipment including some of the touch screen functions within the vehicle,” Corporal Blayden said.
The team quickly settled into the working routine ensuring everything was running smoothly for each refuel.
“The normal process for our team during the Exercise is to quality control check all the trucks to make sure they’re all good to go, and that the fuel is clean,”
“Once the wave has touched down our team will disperse into all the trucks, refuel any aircraft as quickly as possible, and then uplift and return to the refuelling point to prepare for the next wave.”
Working from an airfield as remote as RAAF Base Curtin throws up several environmental challenges that need to be managed by the refuellers.
“Prior to the exercise commencing the Fitzroy River Crossing was flooded which makes getting fuel across into Western Australia quite a challenge,” Corporal Blayden said.
“As a section we had to come up with a couple of different courses of action to figure out how best to help the flying continue.”
Working together over the course of Exercise Talisman Sabre presents regular opportunities for the USAF team to learn different refuelling processes on the job.
“Talisman Sabre has been a great opportunity for both the RAAF and USAF to see how each other operate. This morning we used open line refuelling which the USAF team hadn’t conducted on our trucks before so they were able to go out and gain that experience.”
“It’s been an enjoyable learning curve, everyone’s been getting along really well and morale is high.”
