Bandicoot spells end for Mobile Control and Reporting Centre

Tucked away behind dimly lit screens are the faces of air battle managers and air surveillance operators illuminated by battlespace imagery.

CAPTION: Air surveillance operator Corporal Mikayla Dows, of 114 Mobile Control and Reporting Unit, monitors the air space inside the Mobile Control Reporting Centre during Exercise Pitch Black 24. Story by Flight Lieutenant Matthew Edwards. Photo by Sergeant David Gibbs.

These aviators from the RAAF’s 114 Mobile Control and Reporting Unit (114MCRU) bring control and calm to the chaos that can result from complex air operations such as Exercise Pitch Black.

Exercise Pitch Black 24 may be the Royal Australian Air Force’s largest Pitch Black in 43 years, but it is significant in the command-and-control community for another reason.

At the end of the exercise, 114MCRU is set to retire the Mobile Control and Reporting Centre (MCRC) after 39 years of service.

The MCRC is 114MCRU’s primary capability, enabling them to conduct expeditionary air surveillance and air battle management.

Although out of sight, and often in the most remote places in Australia, it is difficult to imagine any exercise or operation without command and control.

About 110 people currently operate from the unit and the MCRC has been the home of thousands of aviators throughout its history.

Unit deployments that used to take weeks and days, now only takes hours and minutes, as the unit transitions to ‘Bandicoot’, an innovative capability allowing them to rapidly provide dispersed command and control in some of the most remote places around Australia and the world.

Bandicoot gives the unit the opportunity to send out smaller, more agile detachments, echoing its World War II roots of operating a variety of radar stations throughout the south-west Pacific.

Commanding Officer 114MCRU Wing Commander Peter Mole said it was a poignant moment for him, who first operated on the MCRC in 2007 in Afghanistan.

“This is a capability that the unit has supported for many years,” Wing Commander Mole said.

“Everyone at this unit has contributed in some way to what the MCRC has achieved, and what it’s currently doing on Pitch Black.

“It is a bittersweet moment.”

These contributions include many years of logistics and maintenance support to the unit with Leading Aircraftman Craig Gillies, a tradesperson on the MCRC, recalling one of his favourite memories working on the system.

“This is the first time I’ve been able to lead a team,” Leading Aircraftman Gillies said.

“I was only recently appointed as a trade supervisor, allowing me to demonstrate my leadership and technical mastery, one of my bigger achievements in the RAAF to date.”

 

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