Laser Airborne Depth Sounder Flight RAN

Laser Airborne Depth Sounder Flight RAN LADS
Ship's badge for LADS Flight
Active	1992–
Country	Australia
Branch	Royal Australian Navy
Role	Hydrographic Survey
Size	One flight
Part of	Australian Hydrographic Service
Airbase	Cairns Airport, Queensland
Motto(s)	Soaring to New Depths
Aircraft flown
Reconnaissance	Bombardier Dash 8-200

The Laser Airborne Depth Sounder (LADS) Flight is a unit of the Royal Australian Navy. Unlike the rest of the flying units of the RAN, it is not controlled by the Fleet Air Arm from HMAS Albatross, but instead falls under the operational control of the Australian Hydrographic Service at HMAS Cairns, providing a platform for the operation of the Laser airborne depth sounder system.

In the 1970s, the Royal Australian Navy's Hydrographic Service was still limited in its ability to survey the vastness of Australia's coastal waters, and was still producing charts on areas where surveying was incomplete or had not even taken place. As a consequence, the RAN began to search for a way of effectively surveying the Australian coastline from the air, which led to the development of the Laser Airborne Depth Sounder system by the Defence Science and Technology Organisation, a part of the Australian Department of Defence, with trials beginning in 1977. In 1992, a new unit was formed to operate the system, the Laser Airborne Depth Sounder Flight, with the LADS system fitted to a highly modified Fokker F27 aircraft. This aircraft was subsequently replaced in 2009 by a modified Bombardier Dash 8.

The LADS Flight is a joint operation between the Australian Hydrographic Service and the Fugro LADS Corporation, part of Fugro a Dutch corporation, which also runs hydrographic operations for the private sector. The aircraft itself is owned by the Fugro LADS Corporation, which also provides the flight crews and system maintenance technicians. Aircraft engineers come from the civilian contractor, Cobham Aviation Services Australia, while the hydrographic specialists are serving members of the RAN. The flight is stationed at Cairns in the far north of Queensland, but can be deployed to other locations for up to three months at a time; the aircraft has an operational endurance of up to seven hours for operations close to its base, reducing to four hours on station at a distance of up to 300 nautical miles.