MELBOURNE, Australia — Australian F-35 fifth-generation stealth fighters are collaborating in an exercise in Indonesia, on the last leg of a deployment that has seen the jets visit the Philippines, Japan and Indonesia for the primary time.
The six Lockheed-Martin F-35A Lightning II Joint Strike Fighters from 75 Squadron of the Royal Australian Air Force, or RAAF, are currently collaborating in Exercise Elang Ausindo with Indonesian Air Force Lockheed-Martin F-16 fighter jets at Manado on Indonesia’s North Sulawesi Island from Sept. 18 to Sept. 28.
The exercise will see Australian and Indonesian personnel and aircraft conduct air combat missions including offensive and defensive counter air missions; basic fighter maneuvers and air combat maneuvers and air-to-air refueling with an RAAF KC-30A multi-role tanker transport.
Squadron Leader Paul Anderton, an instructor-pilot with 75 Sqn, told Defense News that the exercise took a building-block approach to training, starting with one-versus-one air combat engagements before moving on to two-versus-one or two-versus-two training.
The engagements will then turn out to be more complex, with larger formations reminiscent of four-versus-four training dogfights.
Nevertheless, Anderton said that the exercise was not only Australian jets going head-to-head with their Indonesian counterparts, but its aim also includes interoperability training with the Indonesian F-16s, flying in mixed formations and air-to-air refueling.
“There’s a heavy give attention to the bilateral side of the aviator level engagement and that’s us integrating with the Indonesian F-16s and providing joint training to one another,” he said.
The Australian F-35s had come to Indonesia from Komatsu, Japan, where they participated in Exercise Bushido Guardian with the Japan Air Self-Defense Force, or JASDF, Sept. 4-15.
In line with Wing Commander Tony Parker, the commanding officer of 75 Sqn, Bushido Guardian was conducted roughly along the identical lines as Elang Ausindo with the Indonesians. Nevertheless, he noted that there have been several key differences, with a key one being that the JASDF was also an F-35As operator.
The drill in Japan involved each services using the F-35-specific Multifunction Advanced Data Link, or MADL, to share information. “This was a primary for us, for each nations, and was a was a very successful activity,” said Parker. “We were in a position to operate on data links across each platforms to realize mutual effects inside their operating airspace.”
The JASDF also participated at Bushido Guardian with its Mitsubishi F-2 multirole fighters and F-16 interceptors, and the larger variety of aircraft enabled the participants to arrange the missions into larger aircraft packages, deepening interoperability between the RAAF and the JASDF.
Komatsu can be the house of the JASDF’s Tactical Fighter Training Group, which flies F-15s within the dedicated role of adversary aircraft. These played the role of enemy forces Air during Bushido Guardian, with other JASDF or RAAF participants taking turns fighting alongside them as adversary aircraft.
“It was pretty common practice to have Australian F-35s on each Blue and Red Air,” Parker said referring to friendly and enemy formations. “It was the identical for Japanese F-35s and their F-15s. The aggressors were playing their aggressor role, and being particularly well trained to being aggressors, they often did fill that function,” Parker added.
Parker also spoke in regards to the reliability of his jets throughout the deployment, noting that there was just one instance of a jet not with the ability to fulfill a mission resulting from maintenance problems.
“The deployment was very successful from a maintenance perspective and really reliable as a platform. We will probably be walking away having operated this highly technical platform on the road in Asia with limited support for five weeks, and that has given us a fantastic sense of confidence in our ability to do this.”
Mike Yeo is the Asia correspondent for Defense News.