The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) celebrated its 89th anniversary on 31 March at a commemorative service held at the RAAF Memorial Grove. The anniversary provides an opportunity to highlight the professionalism, training and dedication of our people and demonstrate our commitment to the local and ADF communities. Many Air Force bases have been an integral part of their local communities for decades and are major economic contributors.

Chief of Air Force, Air Marshal Mark Binskin AM said the Royal Australian Air Force has much to be proud of over the past 89 years and the anniversary ceremonies provide an opportunity to acknowledge the vital role of all those past and present members who have served on operations, provided support and those loved ones left at home.

"The anniversary is also an opportunity to thank the local community for their ongoing support and encouragement," Air Marshal Binskin said. "The arrival of the first group of Super Hornets last week marked a new chapter for Air Force and a major leap forward in air combat capability. Air Force continually strives for improvements. Today I announced the reformation of 460 squadron (460SQN) within the Defence Imagery and Geospatial Organisation. This initiative will considerably improve the ability of Air Force to meet current operational and future development commitments of the Geospatial Imagery Analyst (GIA) capability," he said.

GIAs support ADF intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) and strike capabilities and produce intelligence products from imagery and geospatial information in support of a wide range of ADF operations.

460SQN has a long a distinguished history on operations during World War II as a squadron of Bomber Command. The squadron is regarded as having been the most effective of the Australian bomber squadrons though it suffered heavy aircraft losses and over 1000 fatal casualties (589 Australian) -the highest number of any of the Australian squadrons and the total number of personnel in three squadrons combined.