100 Years of Service
On March 31st 2021, the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) commemorated 100 years of Service the Nation.
Royal Australian Air Force F/A-18 Hornets fly over Rond Terrace, Canberra during the Air Force 2021 Centenary flyover. Photo: CPL David Said.
The RAAF is one of the world’s oldest independent air forces. We have every reason to believe we are one of the very best Air Forces in the world. At the birth of the Australian Flying Corps in 1914 and during the First World War, those who formed us and those who made the supreme sacrifice passed their trust of honour and duty into the keeping of the Royal Australia Air Force. Over the past 100 years, Australians have volunteered to join the Air Force to serve this Nation and its people – they include the descendants of the original Custodians of this land; those born in Australia - the descendants of many nations; and those born overseas and who chose to make this country and this Air Force – theirs and ours. During our formative years, we were often equipped with handeddown or borrowed aircraft with training regimes designed for an Empire on a different continent. Over the past 100 years, and with the support of the people of Australia through our successive governments, our aviation maintenance and our research and development industries, the Air Force has been fortunate to be provided with the best training, equipment and technology designed for a geographically isolated continent of immense size, surrounded by water, and with vast open skies. Over the past 100 years, we have developed our professional mastery by exploiting advanced capabilities such as high-speed platforms, rapid mobility, extreme range,
information superiority, precision weapons, electronic warfare, stealth, space-based systems and uninhabited aerial vehicles.
Soviet, US and British air forces, and second largest in the Pacific region with over 130,000 personnel and 6,200 aircraft on strength.
Our structure has been flexible and adaptable to the changing strategic circumstances, and we have prepared and positioned ourselves for the future. Our people are highly educated, physically fit for duty, and have shown a capacity for innovation, preparedness, and commitment to the task.
Post-war, the Air Force was immediately engaged in the British Commonwealth Occupation Force in Japan and Cold War operations including the Berlin Airlift, as well as well as fighting in the Korean Conflict, the Malayan Emergency and Vietnam.
Over the past 100 years, the Air Force has been engaged in operations almost continuously. There can be no doubt the Air Force came of age during World War II, with our members serving in every theatre of operations, across Europe and the Pacific. Australia joined Canada, New Zealand and Rhodesia to contribute to the Empire Air Training Scheme. Over 900 aircrew graduated from the RAAF training Schools every four weeks. In Australia alone, 25 flying training schools were established. At the height of the War, the RAAF had expanded to a strength of 20,000 officers, 144,000 airmen and 18,000 airwomen with the establishment of the Women’s Auxiliary Australian Air Force. Australian air power made an enormous contribution to the Allies eventual victory and established our independent identity and reputation for operational effectiveness. At the time of the Japan’s surrender the RAAF was the fourth largest air force in the world after the
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The introduction of the Meteor, Vampire, Sabre and Canberra heralded the arrival of the jet age; the supersonic era with the Mirage, F-111, FA-18, and the information era with the F-35A and the Wedgetail. Post-Vietnam, the RAAF developed into a modern, technologically advanced regional air-force, able to prosecute air operations in its own right, primarily in the defence of Australia while contributing to regional and global stability including as an expeditionary force to East Timor. We have contributed to the preservation of security and stability in South East Asia, by providing maritime surveillance patrols in the North Indian Ocean and South China Sea, to the International Coalition in the Middle East, as well as peacekeeping missions and support to the Australian community during times of national emergency. We have responded to humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations in the Asia-Pacific region including airlifting immediate logistics demands such as medical supplies, emergency shelter, clean water and power generation.
