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The plaque commemorates the RAAF Radar Crews who have served in conflicts in which Australia has been involved.

A plaque was unveiled at RAAF Base Darwin on Remembrance Day to honour RAAF radar personnel who have served in the northern areas of Australia and beyond.

Air Force personnel from No. 114 Mobile Control and Reporting Unit (114MCRU) were joined by RAAF Radar Association members and veterans at the unveiling ceremony.

The plaque acknowledges those who served in the south-west Pacific area in World War II, those who served in Malaya and Butterworth from 1958 to 1966 and those who served at all other RAAF radar stations through the top end from 1942 to 1945.

Using the call sign Taipan, 114MCRU has a long and illustrious battle history resting on the shoulders of the women and men maintaining, deploying and operating the radar, and control and surveillance systems necessary to ensure the sovereignty of the airspace within which Australia and its Allies operated.

Since 1943, Taipan has been the only ground-based command and control unit that has been awarded battle honours – Pacific (1943-44), New Britain (1943), New Guinea (1943-44), Borneo (1945), and Malaysia (1963-66). 

After World War II, 114MCRU provided deployable air surveillance and air battle management in the Malayan Emergency, Indonesian Konfrontasi, as well as on Operation Slipper in Afghanistan. 

The unit has deployed on numerous defence operations closer to home, including in Papua New Guinea in 2018 in support of the APEC summit.
Australian Government Defence, 29 November 2020.

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