Royal Australian Air Force

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Australian Military Could Develop Joint Space Command

April 16, 2021
ExoNews Editor

Article by Andrew Tillett March 31, 2021 (afr.com)

• In an interview marking the centenary of the Royal Australian Air Force, Chief of Air Force Mel Hupfeld said he was working on a review, due at the end of the year, on how the military embraces space. Hupfeld said that the growing militarization of space poses threats to satellites that are essential to everyday life as well as national security. “We are developing space domain capabilities to ensure our access to space,” said Hupfeld. “Space is a war-fighting domain but we’re not going to militarize space.”

• Under Hupfeld’s vision, Australia’s answer to the US Space Force would be a “space command” – bringing together officers from the air force, army and navy under an integrated command.

• A component of space control is ‘space domain awareness’. Australia’s military defense force would need to build an operational understanding of the space environment to determine if space assets are under threat, being attacked, or subjected to accidental interference or natural phenomena, and to develop capabilities to have a measure of space control to be able to move vehicles and satellites, and to avoid debris and threats in space.

• Last December, Hupfeld joined international colleagues to condemn a Russian anti-satellite missile test, which was viewed as ‘destabilizing’. “Everyone has the right to operate in international seas and air and space,” says Hupfeld. “What we will be looking to do is if there is someone who doesn’t follow international norms, is point it out and hold their behavior to account.”

• Early in March, the Royal Australian Air Force conducted joint drills with the Australian Navy’s destroyer, HMAS Hobart, which included the RAAF’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jet for the first time. Chief Hupfeld rejected the criticism that the Lockheed Martin-built F-35 fighter jet has received lately from the United State’s own House Armed Services Committee about the aircraft’s performance, delays and costs. Hupfeld said it would be foolish not to consider advances in technology and the changing strategic circumstances when weighing whether the RAAF would order additional aircraft beyond the 72 F-35s to which it has committed. “This approach with the F-35A and our other capabilities allows us to maintain our technological edge against rapid military advances in the region,” Hupfeld said.

Australia could launch a specialist “space command” bringing together officers from the air

**Chief of Aussie Air Force Mel Hupfeld**

force, army and navy, as the growing militarisation of space poses threats to satellites that are essential to everyday life as well as national security.

In an interview marking the centenary of the Royal Australian Air Force, Chief of Air Force Mel Hupfeld also rejected criticism of its main weapon, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, saying its true potency remained top secret.

“I would argue very strongly that some of our more speculative commentators don’t have access to the specifications and capabilities and likely haven’t even sat, and certainly not been in control of a fighter aircraft during complex training missions, nor combat,” Air Marshal

Hupfeld said.

He said he was working on a review, due at the end of the year, on how the military embraces space.

While the Trump administration established a standalone US Space Force, Air Marshal Hupfeld downplayed the idea that Australia would follow suit.

One option could be for members of the three branches of the military and the Australian Geospatial-Intelligence Organisation to come together under an integrated command.

“Space is a war-fighting domain but we’re not going to militarise space,” Air Marshal Hupfeld said.

“We are developing space domain capabilities to ensure our access to space.

“As a component of space control, space domain awareness allows Defence to build an operational understanding of the space environment to determine if space assets are under threat, being attacked, or subjected to accidental interference or natural phenomena.”

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Audio Reveals Creepy Details of UFO Mystery

August 19, 2018
ExoNews Editor

by Ally Foster August 7, 2018 (foxnews.com)

• The largest mass UFO sighting in Australia occurred on April 6, 1966 when 350 school children and faculty of Westall High School in Melbourne watched a UFO hover over nearby field for twenty minutes. While today the event is commemorated by a memorial park at the site, it was initially covered up by the school authority. An audio recording of an interview with an eye witness to the event, Westall science teacher Andrew Greenwood, by American UFO researcher Dr. James E. McDonald, has recently surfaced. (see below for 9:21 minute audio interview)

• On that fateful day, Greenwood was in his classroom when a child ran in and said, “there’s a flying saucer outside!” When he went outside to take a look, he saw a group of children in the corner of the school grounds watching a silver, saucer-shaped UFO about the size of a car with a metal rod sticking up, hovering close to a powerline. As more people began to gather to watch, five planes came and surrounded the object in the air. The UFO would dart from side to side to avoid the planes. This went on for twenty minutes before 350 witnesses. The headmaster was so “scared” and “disturbed” by the incident, however, that he refused to come outside until the object was gone.

• Suddenly the UFO shot away and vanished within seconds. The school’s headmaster then came out and ordered everyone to go back to class. “He gave the school a lecture and told the children they would be severely punished if they talked about this matter, and told the staff they could lose their jobs if they mentioned it at all,” said McDonald. The headmaster refused to talk with the Royal Australian Air Force. Then the infamous Men in Black showed up and warned everyone not to speak of the incident.

• After the Men in Black’s visit, nearly everyone shut up and refused to talk about it, even after they’d previously described the entire event in great detail. Over the years, there have been differing reports about the details of what happened at Westall High School, such as people claiming there were not just one but three saucer-like objects in the sky that day. Some believe it was an alien encounter while others suspect the government had something to do with it.

In 1966, over 300 children and staff from a Melbourne school reportedly witnessed multiple UFOs silently flying through the sky before landing in a nearby field.

It is the largest mass UFO sighting in Australia, yet hardly anything was reported on it at the time.
Over the years, there have been differing reports about the details of what happened on April 6 at Westall High School, such as people claiming there were three saucerlike objects, while some thought there was just one.

In the 52 years since, there has been wide speculation about what people saw, with some believing it was an alien encounter and others pointing the finger at the government testing new technology.

Throughout all the years of speculation, however, one particularly interesting piece of audio has been greatly overlooked.

An American physicist known for his research into UFOs, Dr. James E. McDonald, conducted an interview with a science teacher from the Westall school, Andrew Greenwood, who witnessed the event.

He then recorded himself describing their meeting and the creepy details Mr. Greenwood gave about his experience. “Greenwood told me the UFO was first brought to his attention by a hysterical child who ran into his classroom and told him there’s a flying saucer outside,” Dr. McDonald said.

“He thought this child had become deranged or something so he didn’t take any notice, but when the child insisted that this object was in the sky he decided to go out and have a look for himself.”

When he went outside, he noticed a group of children looking toward the northeast area of the school grounds and as he approached them he claims he saw a UFO hovering close to the powerline.
Mr. Greenwood described it as a round, silver object about the size of a car with a metal rod sticking up in the air.

According to Dr. McDonald, the teacher then told him five planes came and surrounded the object as more people began gathering to watch the scene before them.

9:21 minute video/audio on Westall UFO Encounter

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