Fleet Air Arm Association of Australia

Helicopter Training School at Nowra

26 October 2007

The naval air station HMAS Albatross at Nowra is to become the location of the Australian Defence Force’s (ADF) joint helicopter school.

The new school is being established under the Helicopter Aircrew Training System (HATS) announced in February this year.

Defence Minister Brendan Nelson said it would train up to 60 pilots, 40 aircrewmen/loadmasters and 12 observers per year and would help create around 100 civilian positions for maintenance, support and training roles.

HATS is a $500 - $700 million project to replace aircrew training on Navy Squirrel and Army Kiowa helicopters and is part of a broader integrated training strategy.

He said the project would deliver advanced training systems and better equip ADF aircrew to fly more operationally-advanced helicopters such as the Seahawk, MRH-90 Multi-Role Helicopter, Seasprite, Black Hawk, Chinook and the Tiger armed reconnaissance helicopter.

He said that Nowra was a most suitable location to provide the broad range of training environments required for the ADF’s aircrew. It has varied terrain to the west of the base where overland skills such as low-level navigation could be practiced without undue noise impact. To the east, Jervis Bay and the Eastern Australian exercise area were ideal for maritime training and provided an opportunity to work with the Navy’s warships.

Building the school at Nowra would see the development of facilities worth approximately $100 million.

Helicopter aircrew graduating from their initial HATS training would undertake operational flying conversion to other aircraft types. Seahawk and Seasprite training would remain at Nowra, with MRH-90 and Tiger training at Oakey and Chinook training at Townsville.

Construction of the new hangars and associated facilities was planned to start in 2012 with undergraduate aircrew training to commence in 2013.

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