Amberley, Australia: It was March 2006 when Australia announced its decision to induct four C-17s for the RAAF. Nine months later, the first of the planes touched base and the last of them arrived in March 2008. The C-17s are based at RAAF Base in Amberly which has been under a continuous transformation after inducting the aircraft right from having permanent facilities for the aircraft, to support, service and other logistics.

It wasn’t just the base at Amberley that has seen changes as ADF decided to give a quantum leap to its air lift capability less than four years ago. The 36 Squadron, with its rich history of flying transport aircraft since the WWII, was based at Richmond since 1958. However, with the new aircraft coming in, the 36 Sqn underwent its own reformation. “The C130s it was flying were merged with 37 Sqn and the squadron itself was moved to Amberley base,” Wg Cdr Adam Williams, CO, 36 Sqn said, briefing the team of international media visiting Amberley base. The 36 and 37 squadrons along with 38 Squadron, which flies the Beechcraft King Air 350 aircraft, forms the 86 Wing, which falls under the Air Lift Group of the RAAF.

After the first aircraft touching ground in December 2006, in September 2007, RAAF declared its operational capabilities to operate C-17. Together with Boeing and USAF, it took eight months of intensive Introduction-into-Service activities to achieve Initial Operating Capability (IOC). It was to the credit of excellent cooperation between the RAAF, Boeing and USAF that the Globemaster was introduced in a relatively short period, then RAAF’s Chief of Air Force Air Marshal Geoff Shepherd had acknowledged. On its maiden assignment, No. 36 Squadron transported an Army Aviation CH-47 Chinook from its home base at Townsville to RAAF Base Edinburgh. Since then, the No 36 Squadron has trained and advanced towards more complex tactical roles including airdrop of personnel and equipment, and aero-medical evacuation of high dependency patients.