Hunt-the-sub. contest

Press, 28 October 1982, Page 17

Hunt-the-sub. contest

One of the most demanding submarine searches seen in this country is to take place early next month in the waters off the north-east coast of New Zealand. Four Commonwealth air forces will be vying in competition to find the Commonwealth's best submarine hunter. While the Australian Navy’s submarine HMAS Otama will be the target, an ornate silver tray known as the Fincastle Trophy will be the prize in this annual event involving maritime aircrews from New Zealand, Australia. Canada, and the United Kingdom.

These Commonwealth crews have met each year since 1961 to compete in the skills of anti-submarine warfare for the Fincastle Trophy. The Royal New Zealand Air Force has won the trophy twice. In 1964, a Sunderland flyingboat crew captured the trophy and two years ago an Orion crew, operating in the competition

in the North Atlantic, brought the Fincastle Trophy to New Zealand.

The competition has been held in New Zealand twice and this year it will be held in the first week of November off the Northland coast.

The present holder, the Canadian Armed Forces, will be competing with a CPI4O Aurora, a version of the Orion maritime patrol aircraft that will be flown by both the R.N.Z.A.F. and the Royal Australian Air Force in the competition. The R.A.F. will take part with a Nimrod maritime patrol aircraft.

The Fincastle competition, based on two missions flown by each crew — one by day and the other by night — provides an opportunity for Commonwealth air forces to compete with one another in demonstrating their ability using all the sensors available to them to detect, classify localise, and attack an evading submarine. HMAS Otama, which is at' present involved in the mari-

time exercise' Tasmanex off the New Zealand coast, is free to roam anywhere within a 70 nm square area. The aircraft has four hours and a half to locate it and no allowances are made for aircraft unserviceability or delayed takeoffs.

Each day-and-night exercise involves "no holds barred” free play, allowing the aircraft crews to use any means to find and attack the submarine which in turn can take all possible action to avoid being caught. Impartial observers in each aircraft ensure that the rules of the competition are adhered to. The R.N.Z.A.F. Orion from No. 5 Squadron will be captained by Flight Lieutenant Brian Masters of Auckland. His crew is Flying Officer Phillip Morrissey of Wainuiomata (co-pilot), Flying Officer Keith Graham of Wainuiomata (tactical coordinator), Flight Lieutenant Malcolm Parkes of Christchurch (navigator). Flying Officer Peter Hedley of

Whangarei (air electronics officer), Master Air Electronics Operator Barry Nelson of Invercargill. Sergeants Johan Bosch of Wellington and Neville Blakemore of Wainuiomata (air electronic operators). Sergeants Greg Steele of Auckland and Steven Spurle of Auckland (flight engineers) and Flight Sergeant Peter McGuire of Christchurch (air ordinanceman).

The Fincastle Trophy was presented in 1960 by the parents of Sergeant Nairn Fincastle Aird Whyte who was killed in action while serving as an air gunner in the Royal Air Force's Coastal Command.

Past outright winners have been: Australia (1961, 1963, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1972, 1978, 1979); Canada (1962. 1965, 1981); United Kingdom (1966, 1970, 1973, 1974, 1976, 1977); New Zealand (1964. 1980). The trophy was jointly won by Australia and Canada in 1971 and by the United Kingdom and Australia in 1975.