Impressive stuff, and welcome enough for the good people at Mawson. But aside the huge cost (which the Australian Antarctic Division is surely not having to meet - so chalk this up as a further cost of the problems with RSV Nuyina), is this really helpful in the broader context of contemporary Antarctic geopolitics? Sure, it is technically consistent with paragraph 2 of Article 1 of the Antarctic Treaty - "The present Treaty shall not prevent the use of military personnel or equipment for scientific research or for any other peaceful purpose." But, as I observed in a wider consideration of various states' activities in the Yearbook of Polar Law in 2020 'Challenges to Substantive Demilitarisation in the Antarctic Treaty Area' there are boundary issues between legitimate and problematic military use in Antarctica: "in relation to the air operations itemised above, consider the likely framing and response in Australia and the wider Western Antarctic community if it had not been RAAF C-17s doing this but Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force Y-20s."
https://lnkd.in/g8K_XZ5P