The Australian Defence Force has operated Boeing CH-47 Chinook heavy-lift helicopters for most of the period since 1974. Thirty four of the type have entered Australian service, comprising twelve CH-47C variants, eight CH-47Ds and fourteen CH-47Fs. The helicopters have been operated by both the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) and Australian Army.
An initial order of eight Chinooks for the RAAF was placed in 1962, but soon cancelled in favour of more urgent priorities. The Australian military still required helicopters of this type, and twelve CH-47C Chinooks were ordered in 1970. The CH-47s entered service with the RAAF in December 1974. The eleven surviving Chinooks were retired in 1989 as a cost-saving measure, but it was found that the Australian Defence Force's other helicopters could not replace their capabilities. As a result, four of the CH-47Cs were upgraded to CH-47D standard, and returned to service in 1995 with the Australian Army. The Army acquired two more CH-47Ds in 2000 and another pair in 2012. The CH-47Ds were replaced with seven new CH-47F aircraft during 2015, and another three were delivered in 2016. A further four CH-47Fs were ordered in 2021, with two being delivered that year and two others arriving in 2022.
The Chinooks have mainly been used to support the Australian Army, though they have performed a wide range of other tasks. Three Chinooks took part in the Iraq War during 2003, when they transported supplies and Australian special forces. A detachment of two Chinooks was also deployed to Afghanistan during the northern spring and summer months for each year between 2006 and 2007 and 2008 to 2013, seeing extensive combat. Two of the CH-47s deployed to Afghanistan were destroyed in crashes. The helicopters have also frequently been assigned to assist recovery efforts following natural disasters and undertook a range of civilian construction tasks while being operated by the RAAF.
Acquisition During the early 1960s the Australian Army and RAAF considered new types of tactical transport aircraft to replace the RAAF's obsolete Douglas Dakotas. The Army wanted a simple and rugged aircraft that could be purchased immediately, and pressed for the acquisition of de Havilland Canada DHC-4 Caribous. The RAAF regarded the Caribou as inadequate for the intended role and preferred a more sophisticated aircraft, leading to delays in the selection process.
This disagreement ended in September 1962. As part of the expansion of the military in response to Indonesia's policy of "confrontation" with its neighbours, the RAAF was directed by the Australian Government to conduct an urgent evaluation of short takeoff and landing aircraft and heavy-lift helicopters that could be purchased to improve the Army's tactical mobility. An Air Staff Requirement was established in October that year for a project to acquire eight heavy-lift helicopters and introduce them into service by 1971. A team of seven RAAF officers headed by Group Captain Charles Read, the director of operational requirements, was immediately dispatched to the United States and assessed the Sikorsky S-61, Boeing Vertol 107-II and CH-47 Chinook helicopters. The team judged the Chinook to be clearly the most suitable of these types, and recommended that several be acquired; this was in line with the Army's preference. The Government subsequently accepted a recommendation made by the RAAF to acquire a package of twelve Caribou fixed-wing aircraft and eight Chinooks, and placed an order for these aircraft within weeks of the evaluation. The Chinook order was cancelled by the Government when it was learned that it would take several years for the helicopters to be delivered, and the RAAF's orders of Caribous and Bell UH-1 Iroquois tactical transport helicopters were expanded instead.
The Australian military continued to consider options to acquire heavy-lift helicopters throughout the 1960s, and a formal program to achieve this goal was initiated by the RAAF in 1969. The Federal Government's Cabinet approved the acquisition of twelve such helicopters in August that year. At this time the helicopters were intended to be deployed to South Vietnam as part of the Australian contribution to the Vietnam War. A team of nine Air Force and Army officers travelled to the United States in October 1969 to evaluate the Sikorsky CH-53 Sea Stallion and Chinook. The team, which was led by Group Captain Peter Raw, recommended that CH-53s be ordered as the type had superior flying characteristics. Senior RAAF officers and the Army were not pleased with this outcome, and the Air Board rejected Raw's report. Read, who was now an air vice-marshal and deputy chief of the air staff, was directed to review the choice of helicopters, and again recommended that Chinooks be acquired. He justified this choice on the grounds that the Chinook could carry more cargo than the CH-53 and was better suited for operations in the mountains of the Australian-administered Territory of Papua and New Guinea. The Government believed that both types met the RAAF's requirements, but a project to acquire Chinooks would be lower risk than purchasing CH-53s. As a result, an order for twelve CH-47C Chinooks was announced on 19 August 1970. It was planned to rotate the helicopters in and out of service, six being available at any time. The order was suspended later in 1970 when a series of engine problems affected the United States Army's CH-47Cs, but was reinstated in March 1972 after these issues were resolved. The total cost of the purchase was $A37 million. The order made Australia the CH-47's first export customer.
The contract for the Chinooks included an offset agreement with Boeing through which the firm gave Australian companies opportunities to manufacture components of both the RAAF's helicopters and those destined for other customers. This was the first of several such agreements that were included in Australian military aircraft procurement contracts during the 1970s and 1980s, the goal being to assist the local defence industry to access international markets. This agreement had some benefits, as several of the participating Australian companies upgraded their factories to manufacture complex elements of the CH-47. The offset contracts for the Chinook concluded in the early 1980s, but the improved equipment and manufacturing processes were employed in the project to build McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet fighter aircraft in Australia between 1985 and 1990. In line with the RAAF's procurement and support philosophy and the aim of ensuring that the force was self-sufficient, a very large quantity of spare parts for the CH-47Cs was also ordered; in 1993 it was reported that this was the second-largest stockpile of Chinook spare parts after that held by Boeing, and was worth more than $A120 million.
It was decided to station the Chinooks at RAAF Base Amberley, Queensland, as it was located at the midpoint between the Army's main field formations that were based on the outskirts of Sydney in New South Wales and the north Queensland city of Townsville. Construction began on support facilities for the helicopters at Amberley shortly after the order for them was confirmed in 1972.
Royal Australian Air Force service
No. 12 Squadron was re-raised at Amberley on 3 September 1973 to operate the Chinooks. This unit had flown bombers between 1939 and 1948 before being renumbered No. 1 Squadron. The twelve CH-47s were officially accepted by the RAAF in the United States on 9 October 1973. They were subsequently shipped to Australia on board the aircraft carrier , and were unloaded at Brisbane on 28 March 1974. No. 12 Squadron began training flights on 8 July 1974, and the unit was declared operational in December the next year. The squadron typically had between four and six CH-47Cs operational at any time throughout the type's service, the fleet being rotated through long-term storage at RAAF Base Amberley as planned. In November 1980, eight Chinooks were simultaneously operational for the first time, and a formation flight was conducted to mark the occasion. The CH-47Cs had a crew of four, comprising two pilots, a loadmaster and one other, and could transport up to 33 passengers or of cargo. The helicopters were assigned serial numbers A15-001 to A15-012.
The Chinooks' main role was to support the Army. The helicopters were used to transport troops, artillery guns, ammunition, fuel and other supplies. They also provided part of the aeromedical evacuation capability available to the Army. While the Chinooks generally operated in Northern Australia, they made frequent deployments to other parts of Australia, and No. 12 Squadron conducted an annual high-altitude flying training exercise in Papua New Guinea. As part of the security measures introduced after the Sydney Hilton Hotel bombing on 13 February 1978, Chinooks were used to transport Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser and several other national leaders from Sydney to Bowral for a Commonwealth Heads of Government Regional Meeting. In August 1980, a CH-47 was flown from Amberley to Malaysia, and used to recover a Royal Malaysian Air Force S-61 helicopter that had crashed in a remote location. This involved a return trip of , which was believed to have been the longest distance a helicopter had flown up to that time and remains the longest flight to have been conducted by a RAAF helicopter.
During their RAAF service, the Chinooks also undertook a range of non-military tasks. The helicopters frequently formed part of the Australian Defence Force's response to natural disasters, including by delivering food for people and livestock cut off by floods. They were also used for civilian construction tasks such as emplacing lighthouses and carrying air conditioning equipment to the tops of tall buildings. On two occasions Chinooks supported Queensland Police Service drug eradication efforts in remote parts of the state by transporting fuel for RAAF Iroquois helicopters and carrying seized narcotics. In August 1981, two CH-47s lifted containers from the cargo ship Waigani Express to enable the vessel to be refloated after it ran aground in the Torres Strait. A similar operation was undertaken to free the Anro Asia when it ran aground near Caloundra, Queensland, in November the same year. Another unusual task was conducted in December 1981 when a Chinook transported two bulldozers onto a grounded iron ore carrier near Port Hedland, so that they could be used to reposition the ship's load. In May 1989 a Chinook transported a section of a memorial to the pioneering aviator Lawrence Hargrave onto Mount Keira near Wollongong.
The RAAF's Chinook fleet suffered two serious accidents. On 26 June 1975, A15-011 crashed when one of its engine turbines disintegrated; none of its crew were injured. The helicopter was initially assessed as a write off, but No. 3 Aircraft Depot was later assigned responsibility for repairing it. The maintenance unit lacked experience with major helicopter repairs, and A15-011 did not reenter service until 21 May 1981. On 4 February 1985, A15-001 struck power lines and crashed into Perseverance Dam near Toowoomba, Queensland, while undertaking a navigation exercise. The helicopter's pilot, an exchange officer from the Royal Air Force, was killed and the other three aircrew suffered minor injuries. The helicopter was written off and used as a fire training aid at Amberley. A court of inquiry found that A15-001's crew had been unaware of the presence of power lines in the area as they were not marked on the maps used to plan the flight, and were difficult to see from a moving helicopter. The inquiry also judged that the mission had been inadequately planned, and recommended that No. 12 Squadron update the master map used for preparing operations in the Amberley region to ensure that it included all flying hazards.