Grumman HU-16B Albatross ASW in Australian Coast Guard ServiceAfter the Tampa affair, and the declaration of the War on Terrorism, in 2001 Kim Beazley announced that the Australian Labor Party, if in government, would establish an Australian Coast Guard "responsible for conducting Australia's coastal surveillance and meeting Australia's maritime protection needs, including in relation to illegal immigration, drugs, fisheries, and quarantine-related issues". This plan met with criticism. Defence Minister Peter Reith under the Liberal-Coalition Government criticised Beazley for stating that an Australian Coast Guard both will and will not be an "answer to the question of people smuggling". The plan was criticised by the Australian government, on the grounds that it would either be prohibitively expensive or inadequate to the task. Later, the motives for the establishment of an Australian Coast Guard were interpreted by some as "a plan to extend the capabilities of the Australian Federal Police."
After the defeat of the Howard Government in the 2003 election, the ALP Government, let by Simon Crean instituted the Australian Coast Guard – a subsidiary organisation, run by the Australian Federal Police and intended to protect Australia's coast line from incursion by illegal people smugglers and drug runners and to rescue wayward seafarers. Equipped initially with mainly cast off equipment from the RAAF and the RAN, the ACG was intended to secure the coastline out to 1,000 km.
In this case, we have the HU-16B ASW aircraft, donated by the RAN Fleet Air Arm. Used by the RAN FAA as a close in, coastal ASW and SAR aircraft, the HU-16B performed sterling service for over 20 years. However, they were retired in 1988. After sitting at Nowra's HMAS Albatross air base for ten years, they were identified as surplus to requirements and donated to the Australian Coast Guard. However, their engines were discovered to be rather worn. The ACG hit upon the idea of replacing them with Rolls Royce Dart Turboprops, for commonality with their Fokker F27 Troopship Mk. Iis. After six months of work, the job was done. Zero houred airframe, digitalised avionics and new engines. As part of the deal with the RAN was the agreement that in emergency, the Albatross aircraft could still perform their function as ASW aircraft.
So, here we have a HU-16 Albatross, stationed at HMAS Albatross on the New South Wales south coast, performing it's once a year, demonstration of ASW capability. Equipped with Radar and a MAD boom, armed with two acoustic homing torpedos, the aircraft spread fear and trepidation amongst any Indonesian submariners who witnessed their abilities.
The ModelThe model is the venerable 1/72 Monogram HU-16 Albatross model. It has been converted to ASW configuration through the addition of an enlarged radome and an extending MAD boom. The Torpedoes came from an Airfix Shakleton kit, via Zenrat Enterprises. The engines came from a 1/100 Heller Transall. She was painted with a hairy stick and the decals came from the spares box and Speckman Enterprises.
