Second World War No. 10 Squadron was formed on 1 July 1939 at
RAAF Base Point Cook, under the command of Wing Commander
Leon Lachal. Later that month aircrew and ground staff from the squadron departed for Britain to be trained on the
Short Sunderland aircraft which had been acquired to equip the squadron. While it was intended that the aircrew would fly these aircraft to Australia after completing their training, following the outbreak of war the Australian government offered to retain the squadron in Britain. As a result, No. 10 Squadron was both the first RAAF squadron and the first
British Commonwealth squadron to see active service in the Second World War, when one of its aircraft made a flight to
Tunisia on 10 October 1939. It was also the only RAAF squadron to see continuous active service throughout the war. The squadron's major tasks during the war were escorting convoys, conducting anti-submarine patrols, and air-sea rescue. It sank its first
U-boat on 1 July 1940. the unit flew missions as far afield as
Oban in Scotland, where a detachment was based between late 1940 and mid-1940, and
Malta and
Gibraltar in the
Mediterranean Sea. No. 10 Squadron sank a total of six U-boats between February 1940 and May 1945. It also set a
Coastal Command record in February 1944 for the most patrol hours flown in a single month: 1143. In June 1945, the squadron ceased operations as part of Coastal Command and a reorganisation of RAAF units in Britain resulted in
No. 466 Squadron RAAF being redesignated as No. 10 Squadron and moving to
Bassingbourn, in Cambridgeshire. The squadron continued in this role after re-equipping with
Neptune aircraft in March 1962, and the longer range of the Neptune allowed the squadron to operate over South East Asia and the Central Pacific in an area that was equal to "one tenth of the world's surface". During the
Vietnam War, Neptune aircraft from No. 10 Squadron operating from
U-Tapao Royal Thai Navy Airfield supported US Air Force
B-52 bombing missions on an opportunity basis whilst transiting Thai airspace, using their AN/APS-120 radar to provide early warning of surface-to-air missiles. The Neptune's electronic equipment was also used during the
Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation in the mid-1960s to monitor Indonesian radars. For a six-month period between June 1968 and January 1969, the squadron was commanded by a US naval officer, Lieutenant Commander J.A. Mueller. On 1 July 1977, No. 10 Squadron became part of the newly formed
No. 92 Wing RAAF. Throughout 1978–79, No. 10 Squadron was re-equipped with
P-3C Orion aircraft and relocated to
RAAF Base Edinburgh in
South Australia. Since the 1980s, No. 10 Squadron has contributed to the RAAF maritime patrol detachment based at
Butterworth Air Base in Malaysia as part of
Operation Gateway. and contributed to the Australian maritime patrol detachment based in the
Persian Gulf since 2003. In this role the squadron supported coalition operations in
Afghanistan and
Iraq, and undertaken border protection duties as part of
Operation Resolute. In 2019, 10 Squadron was assigned to
No. 42 Wing RAAF, where it continued to operate two AP-3C(EW) Orions in an electronic warfare role. In December 2020 Wing Commander
Marija Jovanovich assumed command of the squadron, becoming the third woman to lead a RAAF flying squadron. No. 10 Squadron became the first RAAF flying squadron to simultaneously have a female commanding officer and a female executive officer in 2021, when Squadron Leader Jenna Higgins took up the role. On 4 September 2023, No. 42 Wing was disbanded and No. 10 Squadron was transferred back to No. 92 Wing. In December 2023, the two AP-3C(EW) Orion electronic warfare aircraft flew their final mission and the type was retired from service. They are being replaced by four
MC-55A Peregrine ISREW / SIGINT / ELINT aircraft. No. 10 Squadron's first MC-55A Peregrine arrived in Australia in January 2026. The remaining three MC-55A Peregrines are scheduled to be delivered in 2026. The primary operating base for the MC-55A Peregrines will be RAAF Base Edinburgh, and they will also operate from two forward operating bases at
RAAF Base Darwin and at
Cocos (Keeling) Islands Airport to "project into Australia's area of interest". ==Aircraft operated==