PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - What is the reason for separate military ATC?
Old 19th May 2016, 11:21
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Maggie Island
 
Join Date: Mar 2016
Location: Gafa
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I'm just gonna throw the obvious out there. Because military airspace NEEDS to be managed by the military.

To all the nay-sayers - you'll have to hear me out before you pass judgement. This really has more to do with what Airservices WON'T do rather than what the RAAF will. There are places where mil ATC are literally just there because they happen to be military bases (Edinburgh and Richmond come to mind). Where approach control is done by AsA and realistically the only thing the RAAF guys do is the occasional "cleared for take off, to land etc". It is inevitable that places like this will one day be run by civillians...(maybe)

Unfortunately, there are other bases which the Air Force REQUIRE some degree of flexibility. Places like Townsville and Darwin frequently host military exercises and thus have traffic that dare I say, AsA would be reluctant to handle. Not because they're any better or worse than their counterparts in blue, but more because the military needs to guarantee military priority for some tasks - an AsA controller will not be happy to take orders or perform their job with ad-hoc "here one day, gone the next" procedures.

Finally, but most importantly are places like your most cherished RAAF base, Dick - Williamtown. At bases like Willy, RAAF ATC work with airspace, procedures and various other bs that as an AsA controller - I would NEVER, EVER touch with a 10nm pole.

"Why dont we change x,y,z?" You ask?

Some of the stuff is malleable, some of the stuff not so much. You can make places like Pearce (hell the military approach is already done from AsA's TCU there!) and Amberley as civvie as you want - but the logical extension of what your asking is to ask the military to operate like civillians. And at some point thats just not gonna fly.

Until the day that we become like our friends across the Tasman and decide that our premier combat aircraft will be the King Air or something, the military will always need WAY more flexibility than AsA can provide.

Military airspace is administered by military controllers for a reason. Don't take my word for it tho, ask to visit some of the bigger bases - see for yourself

Last edited by Maggie Island; 19th May 2016 at 11:51.
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