20220625-MMPI0103
On Saturday 25th June 2022 I went out to RAAF Base Amberley in the early morning to capture aircraft participating in exercise Dawn Strike 2022. The Dawn Strike mission is a yearly one-day exercise that marks the end of the RAAF Air Warfare Instructors Course (AWIC). The exercise consists of a group of strike aircraft attacking a RAAF airfield, with defending fighters from that airfield attempting to intercept the strikers. Typically the strike aircraft depart from their home base of RAAF Amberley and strike RAAF Williamtown, but this year the runway at RAAF Williamtown (shared with the civilian airport) is under refurbishment. For this year's exercise, the striking aircraft departed from Townsville, which they transited through after the AWIC course was held in Darwin. The striking force consisted of six F/A-18F Super Hornets four EA-18G Growlers. The defending force launched a package six F/A-18F Super Hornets. The defenders left around an hour later than scheduled, not sure why the delay but likely one of then forces had issues launching all aircraft. All aircraft returned to base after the interception in the western airspace, arriving in formations. After overflying the base in formation, the various aircraft left and returned in two and three-ship formations in 250ft, 500knot mock strikes. We had the feeling that all the cars lined up along the old back road were the mock target, with each group coming directly overhead then breaking hard as they passed the road. I found it quite difficult to track and focus as they came in low and fast, with limited vision a they came over the treeline. As such I only managed a couple of photos of the aircraft that performed the break at our location, but got a couple with condensation clouds streaming off the wing roots. A great opportunity to see lots of aircraft in a short timeframe, and being early and in Winter the sun was any a nice low angle and gave a crisp blue sky.
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