The first Transportable Air Operations Tower (TAOT), originally delivered in 2012, has rolled out of the Rohde & Schwarz Australia Systems Integration Facility following its upgrade, the company has announced. The tower will be delivered to the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) with modernised systems including Internet Protocol (IP) based voice communications and recording, airfield monitoring and control, network and time synchronisation. Other enhancements include:
- an upgrade to IP radios
- security hardening
- provision of new interfaces
- new uninterrupted power supplies
- air conditioning
- smoke detectors
This upgrade will be rolled out across the TAOT fleet and forms the first tranche of the TAOT mid-life upgrade programme.
A TAOT unit was recently deployed to RAAF Base Scherger in the Far North of Queensland during the biennial multinational exercise TALISMAN SABRE 2021. During Operation BUSHFIRE ASSIST in summer 2019-20 a TAOT assisted civilian and military aircraft conducting remote firefighting and humanitarian aid missions, the company writes.
JH