New $160m Edinburgh RAAF base facility will maintain fleet of Poseidon and Wedgetail aircraft

A new fleet of surveillance aircraft will be stationed at the Edinburgh RAAF base as part of a $160m upgrade to bring more defence jobs to our state.

A multimillion-dollar “deep maintenance” facility will be built on land next to the Edinburgh military base as part of an expanded defence focus in South Australia.

The $160m facility – announced at the base on Saturday by federal Finance Minister Simon Birmingham and Premier Steven Marshall – will repair and maintain an RAAF fleet of 14 Poseidon P-8a aircraft and six E-7A Wedgetail planes.

As part of the deal, the fleet of Wedgetails will be relocated from Queensland to Adelaide.

Mr Marshall said the announcement made South Australia the “unequivocal home of defence” with Edinburgh sporting the largest fleet of military Boeing 737 aircraft in Australia.

The new facility could also mean Adelaide will become a regional servicing hub for other countries using the Poseidon aircraft, including New Zealand, South Korea, India and the United States.

The Poseidon fleet has been based in Adelaide since 2018 but is now in line for major modification programs which are above and beyond normal maintenance currently available at Edinburgh.

Senator Simon Birmingham and Premier Steven Marshall at the RAAF base in Edinburgh on Saturday. Picture: Morgan Sette

Air Commodore Ken Millar said the development was an important boost to Australia’s sovereign capabilities that would prevent the surveillance planes being sent offshore for maintenance.

He said that the first scheduled maintenance of the fleet was to begin partway through this year and current space limitations meant the state-of-the-art aircraft would be crammed into hangars dating from the 1970s with the tail of the aircraft hanging out the back.

Without the facility, the sensitive planes would have to be flown to the US for upgrading and maintenance.

Land next to the air base will be purchased by Renewal SA and then leased to the RAAF for the development of the new maintenance sites.

The development is estimated to create 320 local jobs in the short term, with more specialist staff expected to be employed in the coming years.

Construction is slated to start mid next year with the site fully operational by 2025.

The new facility will look after maintenance and upgrades for 14 Poseidon P-8a surveillance planes. Picture: Morgan Sette

Senator Simon Birmingham and Premier Steven Marshall jointly announced the upgrade. Picture: Morgan Sette

Senator Birmingham said South Australia’s defence industry was “booming”.

“Delivering this important piece of infrastructure means SA will have the capability to meet the needs of additional defence maintenance programs, further creating a pipeline of economic activity and skilled jobs that will exist for decades to come,” he said.

Asked about The Advertiser’s report that Defence Department projections forecast the switch to nuclear submarines would mean 1000 fewer jobs over the next decade, Senator Birmingham said the larger size of the new submarines would create more jobs in the long run.

“The safety around nuclear stewardship is of utmost importance,” he said.

“The nuclear-powered submarines will be bigger, more complicated and more sophisticated than the Attack-class submarines.

“On those grounds, people should have confidence that there will be even greater job demands going into the future given the additional complexity and size of those boats.

“I don’t accept the way the Labor Party has characterised these figures.”

Mr Marshall mirrored those sentiments, adding that he has “no concerns whatsoever” that there are thousands of jobs coming to South Australia as part of the project.

“(Labor) have seized on a document which says that in eight years’ time there might be a particular projection,” he said.