The Nomad Searchmaster

In Australia, there have been many political references, by both Government and Opposition members, to the obvious advantages of using a force of Nomads for the civil protection of the northern half of our immense shoreline. The Search Master would be close to the factory and even a small order would help the overall position of the Nomad abroad. (The GAF people are very conscious of the fact that abroad. (The GAF people are very conscious of the fact that In the wider international field, Sweden was considered In the wider international field, Sweden was considered a few weeks ago. It then became apparent that the most recent attempt to get pricing flight tests complete d had failed again. This was the third attempt – the first being in Australia and the last two in successive northern hemisphere winters in Scotland. There is no question that this has been badly handled. Without certification about flying in icing conditions, the Nomad just cannot be marketed in northern Europe or in the USA and Canada, and the GAF is having to go slow down marketing plans in those areas of potentially bugs? ls. There Is no question that the Swedes were close to decision or that their order would have brought a cluster of orders from other their order would have brought a cluster of orders from other ·Meanwhile, the Indian interest is keen, with a Coast Guard recently formed there. The current negotiations about Nomad airliner sales in New Delhi are regarded as sanguine: if civil Nomads are adopted as standard in India, then the Coast Guard will certainly adopt Search Masters. A very important doorway opened for the Search Master in June when the Hawker de Havilland and Hawker Pacific organizations ran their seminar on costal surveillance in Sydney. While other aircraft are being introduced and discussed. Search Master was obviously being plugged in this Australian atmosphere. Delegations from all South Pacific countries as well as some from Europe, Africa and South East Asia are attending. The Indians and Indonesians were reporting on their experience with offshore patrols.

The Indonesians were heard with considerable interest, for you were the first to put some sort of Search Master into operation. The Indonesian Navy installed Bendix RDR 1400 radar each of their first six Nomad 228s to form what could be called poor man’s Search Masters. This was a most valuable exercise for the GAF people, who were developing the Search Master idea at the time. The Indonesian Navy operated these aircraft from Java and Tanjung Pinang, over a range of 800 miles, and among other attractions covered the Mafacca Straits. For three years, therefore, the Indonesian Nomads have been piling up patrol experience over very difficult seas, and a good deal of it around very crowded waters They have located at least one Russian submarine in the busy They have located at least one Russian submarine in the busy Straits. They can find a small rowboat at four miles. The Indonesians are actually using a converted weather radar system, not a specialized patrol radar system. This in fact locates rain and other water objects but does not penetrate them as the patrol radar does. Yet they are getting very impressive results indeed. From later this year they will take delivery of six more Nomads. On the original six they have been getting six hours flight time, including on-station time, at 2000 feet, with tanks taking 1440 gallons of fuel. The Search Master will have 600 pounds more fuel and a gross eight-and­ one-half hours total flying time, though this would depend on hardware carried on the particular mission, fuel options, and so on.

What is often overlooked in lay attitudes to the Search Master is that a civil surveillance aircraft is merely an aeroplane carrying search radar; just as a fighter is a gun platform, so a surveillance aircraft is a radar platform. The radar system is the most important thing about the whole aircraft or should be.

The GAF has recently changed its mind about its search radar. It now wants the Cutler-Hammer AIL system instead of the Litton LASR-2 which has been mentioned in all previous discussions and publicity about the type. The Canadian branch of the big Litton organisation actually manufactures the LASR-2 under licence from the American Cutler-Hammer organisation, which makes the change of policy sensible. But Cutler-Hammer has developed the common system further than Litton to allow greater agility of frequencies. This means, in lay terms, that the frequencies of the radar pulses can be varied, according to circumstances, to pierce the various “clutters” that are the curse of radar. It can get through the cloud and rain to bring up the solid objective inside it or behind it and display this on the radar screen inside the aircraft. This gives 100 per cent capability. Litton equipment of the same type as originally specified for the Search Masters was also selected for the Fokker version. The Dutch told Litton they also wanted the new development and Litton have come up with it, but the Cutler­Hammer organization has actually been producing it and have made it immediately available to the GAF for the first Search Master. The GAF, however, have struck an internal departmental problem: their contracts board demanded that tenders be called for the radar system, which is quite ludicrous. It is just as if the contracts section of the Department of Defence ruled that tenders be called for the guns or bombs or other weapons for the new TFF fighter. As must be obvious, one simply cannot just select the cheapest radar system.

Of course, money is the problem. The Indonesians put a $40,?00 system in those six first aircraft, while the Litton equipment originally specified for the Search Master costs $120,000. The newest Cutler-Hammer version Is $30,000 beyond that, which the contracts people disliked. The GAF argues that the only thing that matters Is cost-effectivenessand that the new system is far more cost-effective than Litton originally specified.

In practice, the GAF would install any system specified by the country which ordered Search Masters, which might depend on money. But it would only have the best for Australia. Incidentally this is 360 degree radar coverage.

The bulge radio me under the for months to? assess the effect on flight capability. Easter has been flying an actual Search Master, which is a development of the 228 Nomad. Externally, the only great eyeball difference is he radiomen, which can arms the orange peel antennae assuring three feet by 13 ½ in hes. There are also observers bubble windows and wondering tans. The crew includes two pilots and two the, with consoles for the radar operator and the navigator side-by-side. Which brings up the matter of size. It is often argued that the Nomad would be too small for four. people over a period approaching nine hours. In fact, there Is a comfortable rest station, a galley, toilet, etc.

Proponents of bigger aircraft say that the crew could not walk about. but how often does the crew of an airliner walk about the cabin? The fact is that, though they cannot walk erect if tall, the crew can in turn walk a few paces and can rest, even sleep. And two pilots are not busy all the time, for the aircraft has a real need for pilot-monitoring rather than continuous flying work as such. The Search Master is to be pre-programmed on all missions with the auto-pilot doing the job on station and one pilot’ monitoring. The other pilot can have considerable periods of rest from flying. The long-range tactical navigation system includes the Decca Doppler Type 71, Decca TANS Computer/Display Navigation System, and the Sperry GM9 Compass System TANS and Type 71 integrate with the Compass System for very great accuracy and reliability. They can be accompanied by OMEGA VLF. This system gives the crew its position, bearing/distance and heading to steer (and time t go) to a group of 10 waypoints or targets, while vectoring these waypoints. It makes automatic wind calculations and compensates for sea surface motions and calculates the wind component automatically, with corrections for aircraft roll and pitch. TANS can provide ground and track speeds with true air­ speed, vertical and crosswind velocities, etc. The Airborne Search Radar covers 360 degrees and provides information on weather, can interrogate beacons, and covers search and mapping capability. There is a cockpit bright-display five inches wide in the aircraft for the pilot and a seven-inch one for the radar operator at his console among the radar controls, What is often overlooked in comments about the civil surveillance task is the word “civil” – the various aircraft types being proposed for civil patrols all over the world are intended to locate small vessels, boats, canoes, wooden or metal. They are not intended for anti-submarine work, for any type of naval work. They are not as sophisticated in their equipment as the military/naval aircraft, such as the RAAF’s Orions, and of course do not need the vast range and en­ durance. These civil aircraft are intended to work in team with surface vessels to find fishing poachers, drug smugglers and other anti-social enemies, not military enemies. Cost­ effectiveness is a very great factor in selection, for entirely new operating organisations may need it? be created on the lines of an independent coast guard, which was the US solution back in the early 19th century, as which is the Indian solution now. In this country it looks very much as if the job will be given to the Department of Transport, which already operates a veteran and experienced flying unit in Melbourne for transport and technical tests of airways equipment.

In our context the RAAF and the RAN are not keen to take the job, other than with wartime expansion in mind. In other words, the RAAF or Navy would like to do the job with aircraft that could be used in wartime, but in any case they are not properly geared and orientated to do this sort of thing. The RAAF’s big Orions really provide too much capability. The Navy’s Trackers are not the right aircraft for the long­ term operation.

Politically and internationally speaking the Australian offshore patrol system within the 200 miles frontier to seaward should be entirely civilian in the context of the world’s attitudes to the new development. There are many nations which would be suspicious of entirely military operations to our north.

As civil operations must always be on a cheaper basis, the million-dollar Search Master has a lot going for it as against the multi-million Friendship of the HS-748. The Britten-Norman Maritime Defender and other small aircraft are thought to be too small and limited in payload an range for an adequate job. The Nomad Is the right compromise, argues the GAF.

Their idea is to have eight to 15 Search Masters stationed across Northern Australia from Broome to Townsville – with aircraft based at Darwin and Weipa in between. Perth and Learmonth could be included if wider areas are to be covered – hence the 15 units suggestion. This entire area must be swept at least once a day. With average missions of about six hours each and each aeroplane flying one daily mission, the whole area would be covered without trouble. There could be five divisions of the coastline, say, with three Search Masters to each division. Two of these aircraft would be flying in any one day, the third being given maintenance or flying on non-operational missions such as transport for personnel and stores. Endurance could be extended by extra tanks or en route refuelling at fixed airfields.

That provides a very flexible system, the six hours a day allowing for extra time if required by operational circumstances. The capital cost for aircraft would be limited to some $15,000,000 or so, with most spares being kept at the GAF and know-how right at hand within the country.

From a political viewpoint, the principle of using Australian-made aircraft has obvious advantages, as Mr Whitlam himself made clear when he was Prime Minister and which his successor seems to favour, too. The DoT likes the idea of the Search Master as the basic aeroplane as it is, so well known in the north, where it is operated for the flying doctors. And its selection would help civil and military Nomad sales abroad.