Marise Payne (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator McKenzie for her question because we are investing as a government over $1.5 billion in a new pilot-training system to ensure that our next generation of pilots has access to the most contemporary training methods and equipment. At the centre of that investment is the new Pilatus PC-21 training aircraft, which will replace the PC-9, which has been serving us very well since 1987. On Friday I had the privilege, with the Chief of Air Force and the member for Gippsland, our colleague Minister Chester in the other place, to welcome the first six PC-21 aircraft into RAAF Base East Sale. In total we will have 49 of the aircraft, and 42 of those will be allocated to pilot training at RAAF Base East Sale and at RAAF Base Pearce in Western Australia.

The PC-21 is only one part of a comprehensive new training system that will enable us to train more people faster and to a higher standard than our current program. The Air Force is acquiring seven PC-21 simulators, five of those to be based at East Sale and two at Pearce, and I can attest to the very impressive nature of those simulators, having experienced it on Friday myself. This is a capability which will enable us to have synthetic training of undergraduate pilots for the first time in the RAAF. The training system will produce multiskilled aircrew who are able to operate all our current and our future platforms, from our fighter aircraft to our C-17 transporters and everything in between. It's a very important investment—an investment in the long-term future of our ADF aviators. It is the skill and the professionalism of those men and women that is our greatest asset and, if we can support it with this capability, we should.