Australia retains rising its new spy aircraft fleet

Australia’s fleet of superior digital surveillance jets is sort of full, with the Royal Australian Air Power confirming the arrival of its third MC-55A Peregrine at RAAF Base Edinburgh in South Australia. Three of the 4 plane within the deliberate fleet have now been delivered, bringing three of the deliberate 4 plane to Australia, with one nonetheless to return earlier than the nation fields its most succesful airborne intelligence assortment functionality in historical past.

Constructed on the airframe of a Gulfstream G550, the identical plane kind used as a company and authorities transport jet all over the world, the Peregrine has been rebuilt by American protection expertise firm L3Harris Applied sciences right into a flying indicators intelligence and digital warfare platform. The plane can detect, characterize, and exactly find radar techniques, communications networks, and different digital emitters throughout a large space, constructing an in depth image of what adversary forces are doing, the place they’re, and what gear they’re utilizing, whereas amassing intelligence from standoff ranges. Australia’s defence ministry has described it as a system that may “detect, disrupt, deter, and if obligatory defeat threats.”

All 4 Peregrines will function with No. 10 Squadron, the Royal Australian Air Power unit based mostly at Edinburgh that has been Australia’s major airborne indicators intelligence operator for many years. The squadron beforehand flew a pair of closely modified AP-3C Orion maritime patrol plane, transformed within the Nineties below a labeled mission known as Peacemate into devoted indicators assortment platforms. These two plane flew for the final time on December 5, 2023, following a commemorative farewell flight alongside the South Australian and Victorian coastlines earlier than retirement. The MC-55A replaces the AP-3C(EW) Orion with a more moderen ISREW functionality based mostly on the Gulfstream G550 airframe.

The supply timeline for the fleet has moved rapidly. The primary MC-55A arrived at Edinburgh in January 2026, the second adopted in March 2026 after a ferry flight from Texas that stopped in Hawaii and Guam, and the third has now joined them. L3Harris performs the mission system integration and airframe modification work for the Peregrine program at Greenville Majors Airport in Texas, the place the plane bear the prolonged strategy of changing a enterprise jet into one of the crucial succesful airborne intelligence platforms within the Indo-Pacific. Sierra Nevada Company offers further help in Australia because the plane enter service. A Defence spokesperson confirmed in Might 2026 that the MC-55A fleet was nonetheless conducting coaching, testing, and analysis work earlier than full integration into operational service.

The plane was acquired by way of the U.S. Overseas Navy Gross sales program, the formal government-to-government mechanism by way of which American allies buy U.S. navy gear, below a mission designated AIR 555 Part 1. That acquisition pathway means Australia purchased the plane by way of the U.S. Air Power reasonably than immediately from L3Harris, a standard method for delicate intelligence techniques the place the U.S. authorities maintains oversight of how the expertise is used and with whom it’s shared.

At RAAF Base Edinburgh, the Peregrine sits alongside the P-8A Poseidon, the Boeing-built maritime patrol and anti-submarine plane that Australia operates in vital numbers, and the MQ-4C Triton, the Northrop Grumman high-altitude unmanned surveillance drone that gives persistent wide-area maritime statement. Collectively the three platforms kind an built-in surveillance structure designed to present Australia and its allies complete visibility over the maritime and electromagnetic setting stretching throughout the Indo-Pacific, the huge ocean area that connects the Pacific and Indian Oceans and thru which a rare share of world commerce and navy exercise flows.

The Royal Australian Air Power confirmed the fleet’s contribution to nationwide technique immediately in its announcement of the third arrival, stating that the MC-55A Peregrine “enhances ADF functionality by delivering vital intelligence in help of operations, strengthening Australia’s skill to watch its strategic space of curiosity, together with key maritime approaches, an everlasting precedence below the Nationwide Defence Technique.”