World War II No. 35 Squadron was formed at
RAAF Station Pearce, Western Australia, on 11 March 1942, under the command of
Flight Lieutenant Percival Burdeu, as a transport unit. After moving to
Maylands, the squadron's operations were restricted to flying only within Western Australia as it was equipped with just one
de Havilland Dragon and a
de Havilland Fox Moth. Later in the year, the squadron was augmented with an assortment of aircraft including
de Havilland Moth Minors,
Fairey Battles,
de Havilland Tiger Moths, an
Avro Anson, a
de Havilland Dragon Rapide and a
Northrop Delta. Despite not being employed in an offensive role, the squadron's aircraft were regularly called upon to fly into dangerous areas of the conflict zone, often at low level, and on several occasions the Caribous were fired upon and aircrew wounded. By June 1971, the squadron's complement of aircraft was reduced from seven to four as a part of the drawdown of Australia's forces in Vietnam; as a result of requirements for maintenance, however, only two aircraft were operational at any one time after this. In early 1977 the squadron's role was expanded when it was equipped with four
UH-1 Iroquois helicopters as well as its Caribous, making it the only RAAF squadron to ever be simultaneously equipped with rotary- and fixed-wing aircraft. On 21 January 2014 No. 35 Squadron was temporarily transferred from No. 84 Wing to the C-27J Transition Team. The squadron returned to No. 84 Wing mid 2016 once 35 Squadron was nearing Initial Operating Capability. The RAAF's first C-27J arrived in Australia on 25 June 2015, and No. 35 Squadron began operating the aircraft from
RAAF Base Richmond. The squadron planned to move to
RAAF Base Amberley prior to achieving full operational capability in early 2019. The unit reached initial operating capacity in December 2016. It received its tenth and final aircraft on 2 April 2018. In July 2021 the role of the squadron was adjusted, with it to focus on humanitarian and disaster relief tasks within Australia and nearby countries. An article in the
Australian Defence Magazine noted that it is unclear whether the RAAF still considered the C-27s suitable for combat roles. The article stated that the C-27s' performance had not yet met the final operating capability criteria, with the type requiring remediation work on its missile approach and warning system, and the aircraft had a persistently low availability rate due to sustainment and supply chain problems. ==Aircraft operated==