851 Squadron was a Royal Australian Navy Fleet Air Arm squadron. The squadron operated over two periods between 1954 and 1984, mainly in the training and transport roles.

History

851 Squadron was formed at HMAS ''Albatross'' based at RANAS Nowra as a land-based training and fleet support squadron on 3 August 1954.. Its first commanding officer was Lieutenant D. Johns and it was initially equipped with Fairey Fireflies and

C-47 Dakota The Douglas C-47 Skytrain or Dakota (Royal Air Force, RAF, Royal Australian Air Force, RAAF, Royal Canadian Air Force, RCAF, Royal New Zealand Air Force, RNZAF, and South African Air Force, SAAF designation) is a airlift, military transport ai ...

s. It was tasked primarily with training pilots and observers on the Firefly, and in this role the squadron's Dakotas were used as an observer training platform; they were also used to provide a transport and communications capability. Throughout March 1956 the squadron was embarked upon HMAS ''Sydney'', however, this was the squadron's only stint at sea as it was confined mainly to its training role. The squadron was disbanded on 13 January 1958 following the reduction of the

Royal Australian Navy The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) is the principal naval force of the Australian Defence Force (ADF). The professional head of the RAN is Chief of Navy (CN) Vice Admiral Mark Hammond AM, RAN. CN is also jointly responsible to the Minister of ...

's aircraft carrier fleet, which reduced the Navy's training requirements. It remained off the order of battle until it was re-formed at Nowra as a training and transport unit on 2 September 1968, equipped with Dakotas and

Grumman Tracker The Grumman S-2 Tracker (S2F prior to 1962) was the first purpose-built, single airframe anti-submarine warfare (ASW) aircraft to enter service with the United States Navy. Designed and initially built by Grumman, the Tracker was of conventiona ...

s. It also operated in the VIP and fleet requirements roles, with the latter role sometimes seeing the squadron undertake search and rescue tasks, as well as patrolling the

Bass Strait Bass Strait () is a strait separating the island state of Tasmania from the Australian mainland (more specifically the coast of Victoria, with the exception of the land border across Boundary Islet). The strait provides the most direct waterwa ...

to maintain security around the economically important oil facilities there. A detachment was also sent to operate out of Darwin and Broome, to undertake fishery protection patrols. The Dakotas were replaced by Hawker-Siddeley 748s in 1973. The squadron amalgamated with

816 Squadron RAN 816 Squadron is a Royal Australian Navy Fleet Air Arm squadron that started out as a Royal Navy unit, 816 Naval Air Squadron. Current roles 816 is currently active as a helicopter squadron equipped with MH-60R helicopters. The Squadron is based ...

in July 1982 before being disbanded for a second, and final, time on 31 August 1984..

Aircraft operated

The squadron operated the following aircraft: *

Fairey Firefly The Fairey Firefly is a Second World War-era carrier-borne fighter aircraft and anti-submarine aircraft that was principally operated by the Fleet Air Arm (FAA). It was developed and built by the British aircraft manufacturer Fairey Aviatio ...

(August 1954 – January 1958); *

(August 1954 – January 1958, September 1968 – 1973); *

(September 1968 – August 1984); and * Hawker-Siddeley 748 (1973 – August 1984).

Notes

References

* * {{Use dmy dates, date=June 2017 Flying squadrons of the Royal Australian Navy Military units and formations established in 1954 Military units and formations disestablished in 1984

History

Aircraft operated

See also

Notes

References