723 Squadron RAN


723 Squadron is a Royal Australian Navy Fleet Air Arm squadron. The squadron was first raised in 1952 and throughout its history has served operationally during the Vietnam War, the Gulf War and in East Timor. It currently operates as a helicopter training squadron and is based at HMAS Albatross at Nowra, New South Wales.

History

723 Squadron was first commissioned into the RAN on 7 April 1952 and was equipped with one Dakota, one Wirraway, one Sea Otter and two Sea Fury aircraft.
On 11 March 1953 the Squadron took delivery of the RAN's first helicopter, a Bristol Sycamore. 723 Squadron also took delivery of the RAN's first jet aircraft, a de Havilland Vampire Mk T.34 on 18 June 1954.
During the Vietnam War, personnel from the squadron operated as part of the Experimental Military Unit, a joint Australian-American helicopter assault and transport unit.
During the squadron's history, the battle honours "Vietnam 1967–71", "Kuwait 1991", and "East Timor 1999" have been earned.

Current roles

723 is currently active as the Australian Defence Force's helicopter training squadron operating the EC-135T2+ helicopter at the Joint Helicopter School. It was previously equipped with 13 Aerospatiale AS 350BA Ecureuil and three Bell 429 helicopters. The Squadron is based at HMAS Albatross. The Squirrels were used for conversion training all pilots, observers and aircrew from fixed wing to rotary wing aircraft. The Bell 429 joined the Squadron in 2012 on lease from Raytheon Australia and are used for multi engine training for pilots moving onto other aircraft such as the S-70B-2 Seahawk.

Aircraft

Current