Flt Lt Josh from RAF Fylingdales recently swapped the rugged Yorkshire Moors for sunny Australia on Exchange Programme LONG LOOK. He spent three months visiting the various units under the newly formed Defence Space Command, the equivalent to UK Space Command.
Through the exchange, both nations swapped personnel to learn and share their experiences. Josh said: “This has been a fantastic opportunity to collaborate with Defence Space Command during its stand up and initial development. Many of the challenges and opportunities it has are the same as UK Space Command.”
Some of Josh’s highlights included spending time at 1 Remote Sensing Unit (1RSU) and the Australian Space Operations Centre (AUSSpOC).1RSU has been undertaking Space Operations alongside its Air Surveillance task since 2015. With the same mission set as RAF Fylingdales, operators provide Missile Warning and Space Surveillance through three systems.
The Australian Mission Processor receives data from US Missile Warning satellites that enables threat assessment. Holt Radar, the first dedicated space surveillance network sensor in the Southern Hemisphere, is used to track objects in low earth orbit.
Finally, the soon to be operational Space Surveillance Telescope will monitor satellites more than 30,000 km away. This highly capable telescope broke the world record in 2015 for the number of observations in a year with just under 7 million. Given the similarities between the two units, future partnerships between 1RSU and RAF Fylingdales are being explored.
Josh went on to say:
“As CSpO partner nations, Australia and UK links will continue to become stronger as we grow and develop capabilities. Exchange opportunities like this will remain an invaluable way to learn from one another.”
The AUSSpOC is the operational arm of Defence Space Command and will grow rapidly in the next few years to become similar in size to the UKSpOC. Having learnt about the units products and services, Josh shared his UKSpOC experiences and helped the two units collaborate on a number of outputs. He was also part of the AUSSpOC team that participated in the Sprint Advanced Concept Training Exercise (SACT 22-2) held at the Australian Space Agency.
This global exercise focussed on military and commercial collaboration within the Space Domain and involved over 100 companies and numerous military partners including the UK, US, France and Chile.
During his time, Josh managed to visit every state and territory in Australia, stating:
“I’ve been incredibly fortunate to see much of what stunning Australia has to offer. Outside of work, I’ve caught up with friends and family along the way and attended lots of sporting events, including a fair few Aussie Rules ‘Football’ games, still no closer to understanding it though!”
