RAAF air vice marshall Catherine Roberts, from South Australia, leads Australian defence into space role
RAAF air vice marshall Catherine Roberts addressing a women in leadership digital summit.
Image by LAC Michael Green, courtesy Australian defence department
South Australia’s air vice marshall Catherine Roberts, from Mount Gambier, was appointed to head the Australia’s defence department space division to be launched in 2022 within the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF).
An aerospace engineer, Roberts in 2019 became head of air force capability that designed and readied the technology Australia needed for air and space. A Member of the Order of Australia for her exceptional service in aerospace acquisition and sustainment, Roberts was featured in the Australian Financial Review’s 2013 prestigious 100 Women of Influence and received the Aviation/Aerospace Australia leadership award in 2014.
Roberts joined the Royal Australian Air Force in 1983 as a specialist in aerospace engineering at the aircraft research and development unit. Her many career roles include logistics command (F/A-18/Macchi/Winjeel engineering), No.77SQN (flight line maintenance), No.481SQN (senior engineering officer), and Lead-In Fighter Project (UK resident team).
In 2001, Roberts attended the joint command and staff college, before a posting to the joint airworthiness coordination agency when she received a conspicuous service cross for overseeing the airworthiness of major new Australian defence force aviation capabilities, setting up operational airworthiness regulations and developing airworthiness frameworks for charter and unmanned aircraft.
Roberts spent significant time in the United Kingdom. In 2005, she was assistant air force advisor in London engaging on air force capability and commanding air force personnel embedded in UK units and on UK operations. She was appointed to command the tactical fighter systems program office in 2007 and the training aircraft systems program office in 2009. She completed the Royal College of Defence Studies course in international relations and strategy in 2011.
In 2013, Roberts was posted to the F-35A Joint Strike Fighter project, achieving government approval in 2014 and introducing the first two Australian aircraft into service at the Luke Air Force Base in Arizona. She has been responsible for acquiring and sustaining the Growler, Super Hornet, Classic Hornet and Hawk Lead-in Fighter.
From 2016, Roberts headed of aerospace systems division that bought and sustained all of the air force’s fixed wing assets. She brought a major first principles review reform to workforce design, organisational construct, governance, industry efficiencies and capability manager engagement across the air domain and the RAAF’s capability acquisition and sustainment group,
Roberts was a fellow of Engineers Australia, member of Australian Institute of Company Directors and the defence representative on the Australian Space Agency Advisory Group. She also was chair of AFL (Australian Football League) for Air Force. She held a master’s degree in management of defence studies from University of Canberra and a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.
Roberts' passion for diversity and assisting women to enter the field of aerospace and STEM was expressed through her work with Women in Aviation/Aerospace Australia and Women in Aviation International (Australian Chapter). She was a mentor in the Future Through Collaboration (Defence and Industry) and Superstars of STEM programs.
Roberts’s role as leader of the RAAF’s space role fulfilled the ambition instilled in her as a child when she watched Neil Armstrong step on the Moon in 1969.
