
RAAF to fly remotely piloted aircraft out of Rockhampton
THE Royal Australian Air Force is set to make history and fly its Heron remotely piloted aircraft out of Rockhampton Airport from next month.
This will be the first time the RAAF has flown this remotely piloted aircraft in civilian airspace in Australia.
It will operate out of Rockhampton Airport as part of Exercise Talisman Sabre.
Until now, the Heron remotely piloted Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) has only flown inside its current restricted military airspace over the Woomera Test Range.
The Heron aircraft has completed more than 27,000 mission hours during Operation SLIPPER where it provided intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance support to Australian forces and International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) partners in southern Afghanistan.