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.
The Royal Navy's original 723 Naval Air Squadron arrived at Nowra in January 1945 after travelling from the United Kingdom on the troopship Athlone Castle. The squadron "towed drogue targets [and provided] ‘attacking aircraft’ for ship and aircraft gunnery practice, radar calibration and radar interception targets."[1] It was disbanded on May 31, 1946.
723 Squadron was first commissioned into the Royal Australian Navy (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.[2]
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.[3]During the squadron's history, the battle honours "Vietnam 1967–71", "Kuwait 1991", and "East Timor 1999" have been earned.[4][5]
723 Squadron was previously equipped with 13 Aerospatiale AS 350BA Ecureuil (Squirrel) and three Bell 429 helicopters. The Squadron is based at HMAS Albatross (NAS Nowra). 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 were used for multi engine training for pilots moving onto other aircraft such as the S-70B-2 Seahawk.
It is currently active as the Australian Defence Force's helicopter training squadron operating the EC-135T2+ helicopter at the Joint Helicopter School.[6]
