725 Squadron is a naval aviation squadron of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) Fleet Air Arm. The squadron was originally created in August 1943 as part of the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy. The squadron became an air target towing unit two years later and then disbanded in December 1945. In January 1958, 725 Squadron re-emerged as a RAN fleet requirements and communications unit at Naval Air Station Nowra, Australia, and operated a varied fleet of aircraft including the Douglas C-47A Dakota, Auster J5-G Autocar, Hawker Sea Fury Mark 11, Fairey Firefly AS-5 and the Fairey Gannet AS1.
In 1959, the Squadron’s anti-submarine warfare (ASW) mission emerged when it was designated a training squadron for the mission. In the ensuing years, the squadron performed tasks such as radar and communications calibration exercises and air interception practice for officers going through warfare training. In February 1964, an Australian aircraft carrier collided with a destroyer in one of the most tragic accidents in Australian naval history. 725 Squadron was there to perform search and rescue efforts. The Squadron was commissioned, decommissioned, and recommissioned a number of times over a period of several decades.
NUSQN 725 was stood up on 11 February 2013 tasked with introducing and then operating the Lockheed Martin MH-60R ‘Romeo’ Seahawk helicopter. 725 Squadron was commissioned for the fourth time in June 2015, this time as a training unit for MH-60R Seahawk Romeo helicopters: the squadron had been reactivated two years prior as a non-commissioned unit train on and accept into service the Romeos. The squadron was spent the next two years based at Naval Air Station Jacksonville in Florida, while personnel were trained on the new helicopters. The first two Romeos were delivered to the squadron on 12 December 2013. 725 Squadron was recommissioned into the RAN at Albatross on 11 June 2015.
