Newsdesk – Military Aviation

All of the RAAF’s F-111C aircraft, with the exception of the four RF-111s, will be modified to accept Pave Tack by the end of 1987 at a total project cost of just over $160 million. The remaining aircraft will be modified in Australia. The introduction of the Pave Tack system will increase the effectiveness of the RAAF’s F-111C aircraft and make them one of the most capable strike aircraft in the world today.

 Real Growth in Defence Budget:

The 1985/86 Budget, handed down in August, allowed $6535m for Defence, an increase in real terms (adjusted for inflation) of 3. 1% and representing 2. 8% of the GDP. Defence Minister Kim Beazley stated that the latest allocation continued the trend in recent years of concentrating spending on the acquisition of major items of capital equipment and building up the infrastructure necessary to support the defence forces.

The lion share of expenditure this year again goes to manpower with some 2745m representing 42% of the budget. Spending on capital equipment and facilities is next with $2025m representing 31% of the vote. An example of how much per unit capability costs nowadays is mirrored in the fact that expenditure on such items during the seventies accounted for a mere 17 to 22 percent of the total budget vote. Operating costs would consume $1715 representing an increase of $133 over last year.

In terms of manpower, the Army’s strength will drop by 460 to 32,000, Navy’s by 523 to 15,536 while the RAAF will remain constant at 22,797. Civilian strength will be reduced by 223 to 39,784 reflecting the manpower savings to be had by the recent integration of the Dept of Defence Support into the Dept of Defence and reduced requirements for local civilians at Butterworth air base in Malaysia.

Major capital equipment items in the budget include: $912m as progress payments on the F-18A, $70m for initial payments against 8 Sikorsky Seahawk helos for the RAN, $70m as progress payments for 10 P-3C Orion ASW aircraft, $35m for Sidewinder and Sparrow AAMs for the tactical fighter force, $28m for Harpoon and Standard missiles for the RAAF and RAN and also for Mk48 torpedoes for the RAN and $24m for the Wamira project. The development of new RAAF airfields in the north also gets a boost with $28m being spent on the new F-18 base at Tindal, NT and $22m on the special deployment facility at Derby in Western Australia.

 There They Go Again Dept:

Readers who saw the July Four Comers (ABC TV) programme on the misuse of funds associated with US defence contracts would no doubt have been dismayed at some of the extremely incorrect statements made concerning the McDonnell Douglas F-18A Hornet. Our phones ran hot the week following the segment with people wishing to voice their frustration at what they considered bad reporting at best. An ABC senior staffer even confided his disappointment to us that the local segments weren’t better researched.

To gain a local angle to what was basically a US topic, Four Corners claimed the RAAF F-18s had a ‘range of 500 miles, were subject to considerable project cost escalation and finally had had a troubled development history. Many lay people we spoke to in subsequent weeks were then of the opinion that Australia had bought another lemon Just to set the record straight, the F-18 does fly further than 500 miles. In fact, almost as if to prove a point, the RAAF recently flew two Hornets non-stop from Pearce in WÁ to Williamtown in a mere three hours and two minutes. That is a transcontinental flight of some 1,826nm at an average speed of 602kts. So much for lack of range! The situation relating to increased project cost is almost entirely a result of the fall in value of the Australian dollar. As we mentioned in our September issue Recce it doesn’t matter if you are buying Chevrolets or Hornets, the value of our dollar has plummeted dramatically in relation to the US dollar since the F-18 contract was negotiated back in 1981. The remainder of the project cost escalation is the result of normal year-to-year inflation. The total project cost so often referred to in the lay media also comprises the programme expenditure on the various levels of support, spares and training facilities worth in themselves more than a billion dollars in present value. So much for massive cost increases! The third statement was one of the most ill-conceived as it referred to the Hornet having a troubled development history. The F-18 has had one of the cleanest, if not THE cleanest, development history of all US fighter aircraft over the past four decades. The recent tall fin fatigue problems are relatively minor, have been fixed and result from the aircraft’s unique ability to fly extremely high stable AOAs in air combat manoeuvring. Rather a case of a small price to pay for an exceptional standard of agility, the hallmark of every successful fighter aircraft.

We mention this because we feel strongly that the ill-researched comments made that night on national television are an undeserved slur on the capabilities of all those who are involved on this project. On a personal level, we felt it was an insult to the intelligence of the average viewer that they should be fed such misleading and biased data on what is a cornerstone of Australia’s defence in the decades ahead.

The French Lose out in the European Fighter Race:

The future European Fighter Aircraft (EFA) will be built by a consortium of British, West German, Spanish and Italian aerospace companies. France finally opted out of the programme when it could not establish total design and engineering leadership in fav- our of its European neighbours.

EFA will be a fighter aircraft in the class of the F-16 and F-18 and will be powered by two 20,000lb thrust Rolls Royce XG-40 turbofans. Dry weight will be 9. 75 tonnes while the final design will probably lean heavily towards the Brit- ish Aerospace EAP development aircraft which is scheduled to test fly by mid-86. Both Britain and West Germany have a requirement for a minimum of 250 such aircraft while Italy will purchase 200 and Spain probably 100.

The EFA will enter service during the early nineteen nineties and will replace BAC Light- nings, Sepecat Jaguars, F-104S Starfighters and F-4 Phantoms in NATO service. Export potential exists but will be hard fought against a number of US aircraft such as the F-20, F-16XL and the proposed Advanced Tactical Fighter, later variants of the Mirage 2000, Rafale, Jas Gripen and Israel’s Lavi.

Hughes Helicopter Is Now McDonnell Douglas:

Hughes Helicopters is now officially known as the McDonnell Douglas Helicopter Company. Hughes Helicopters became a subsidiary of MDC on January 6th, 1984 its 50th anniversary year. The company was launched in 1934 by Howard Hughes as the aviation division of the Hughes Tool Company The McDonnell Douglas Helicopter Company employs more than 7,000 people and will shortly be moving its primary manufacturing facility from California to Arizona. Worldwide sales during 1984 exceeded $US800m with the majority going for military production of the AH-64 Apache and civil and military versions of the Model 500.

Tornado Scores First Export Orders in Massive Middle East Sales Victory:

Panavia has finally broken into the export market with their Tornado strike and air defence fighter. During August the Sultanate of Oman signed for a single squadron of 8 of the F. 2 air defence version while one month later Saudi Arabia agreed to purchase 48 IDS Tomados and 50 BAe Hawk trainers.

Oman may also order a second squadron and will also purchase AEW and tanker aircraft to bolster its new defence capability.

The Saudi win was against strong competition from France and is worth more than $A6bn to British industry. A total of 809 Tornados are on order for the Luftwaffe, Italian and Royal Air Forces.

 Rolls Royce to Re-Engine Black Hawk:

Rolls Royce was due during November to receive a Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter to operate as a test bed for its RTM322 turboshaft engine. Sikorsky and Shorts have teamed to offer an RTM322 pow- ered Black Hawk for the British army/RAF AST404 bid. The Rolls Royce/Turbomeca engine is presently rated at 2100shp and can be stretched to 3000shp in later versions offering a wide range of possibilities in re-engining present and future helicopters.

Rolls Royce have already offered submissions on the benefits of the more powerful RTM322 powered Black Hawk and AH-64 Apache helicopters to the US Army in an effort to get their engine into US service. Both helicopters are presently powered by the General Electric T700 which is rated in the 1600shp class.

Feedback:

It is always nice to get feedback from readers on what they see and read in the magazine. Two remarkable instances came across our desk recently concerning the September edition.

John Laming of Tullamarine, now a 737 Captain, wrote to thank us for running a cover painting of the RAAFs Convair 440. By coincidence, John captained that same aircraft (A96- 353) on its final flight on 17 April, 1968 from Fairbairn to Bankstown shortly before it was sold to a US broker. John spent over 1200 hours on the Convair and rates it one of the best aircraft he has had the pleasure to fly, a view no doubt shared by most who flew the type. *A96-353 was regarded as the favourite of the two Convairs, only because it had the luxury of weather radar. There were many hairy trips in A96-313, which lacked radar, and in the light of current knowledge of the dangers of thunderstorm penetration, I think we may have risked the necks of a few important people flying without radar, particularly at night”, commented John The second coincidence came from Bob Brammah of Brisbane who actually identified his father standing beneath the wing of Shorts Empire boat, “Cooee”, on p45. As a child Bob remembered the stories his father used to tell him of the great days of the flying boats. Mr Brammah Snr servied with Qantas Empire Airways and BOAC as a flight engineer for 25 years.

Williamtown Air Show Raises Cash for Fighter Museum:

The August 25th Open Day at RAAF Williamtown, at which more than 100,000 people attended, has raised around $28,000 for the base’s proposed Fighter Museum. The Museum will refurbish, maintain and especially house examples of fighter aircraft of the RAAF.

The Open Day was also hopefully to usher in the return of the RAAF historic Flight CA-27 Sabre The aircraft unfortunately went US on the Friday following discovery of component problems with the Sabre’s ejection seat and fuel system. This is presently being rectified and it is hoped the aircraft will be fully serviceable for the coming Schofield Air Show in November.

Westland Battle Back:

The last twelve months have certainly not been kind to UK helicopter specialist Westland of Yeovil. Over the past year Westland lost the RAN helo contract to Sikorsky, the UK MOD revised and stalled its all-important Wessex/Puma replacement programme and to top it off the Indian government dropped its intention to acquire 26 Westland W30 civil transports for the off-shore oil resupply role.

Recent months though have seen an entirely new board of directors, chairman and some major changes in policy effected with a view to strengthening the company in the years ahead. Things are also looking up on the market side with the Indians now back with serious talk of buying up to 40 W30 transports and the MoD hoping to have a final decision on AST404 approved by this Christmas Primary competitors in AST404 are the Super Puma and Black Hawk. AST404 itself has evolved from being a mere Wessex/Puma replacement requirement to a new conceptual study determining whether or not a mix of Chinook CH-47D and a smaller Wessex-sized helicopter should be purchased for the battlefield resupply role rather than a large number of the latter.

In the longer term the joint Westland/Agusta EH-101 will be flying in late 1987 and ready for operational deployment by 1991. There are big hopes for this advanced technology helicopter which when in production will be the only helicopter in its class.

Spain, Brazil Order Boeing 707 Tanker Conversions:

Spain will purchase two Boeing 707 tanker/transport aircraft and Brazil will convert four 707 commercial jetliners into aerial refuelling tankers.

The offer accepted by the Spanish Government provides for the purchase of two modified commercial 707s from BMAC. Each tanker will feature an executive interior and will transport about 66 passengers.

The four aircraft to be converted for Brazil have been in commercial service with Brazil’s Varig airline. They have been purchased by the Brazilian Air Force for use as tanker/transports.

Us Coast Guard Toughens up Its War on Drug Smugglers:

The US Coast Guard is in the process of building a mini air force to combat the estimated $US80 billion dollar a year trade in smuggled narcotics into the US. Úp till now USCG spokesmen estimate that the Agency was able to intercept a bare 10% of the illegal traffic, most of which comes through the southern corridor from Central America and Mexico. In recent years the USCG has borrowed US Navy and Air Force assets to provide a more thorough net of surveillance but these aircraft, principally E-2Cs and E-3As are not always available and so a concerted campaign is difficult to execute against the estimated 18,000 illegal flights entering US airspace each year.

To overcome the surveillance problem the USN has donated six Lockheed P-3A Orion aircraft which will have their ASW gear removed and will be equipped with a modified version of the Hughes APG-63 radar from the MDC F-15 Eagle fighter. The APG-63 is a multitrack long-range radar that has been modified to eliminate the effects of ground clutter and can operate over a 180-degree arc in the look-down mode in virtual AEW fashion to detect low-flying aircraft as far away as 100nm. The Orion airframe allows a single mission endurance of up to 18 hours.

As a smuggler approaches within 100 or so miles of the US coast, he will suddenly dive to avoid radar detection by the land based air defence radars. The intruder will generally then approach at below 200ft. Alerted by such suspicious activity the Orion will routinely perform IFF interrogation on targets entering the zone. As soon as the Orion operator has an assurance that the intruder has not filed a FAA flight plan an interception can commence. A ground based aircraft is then launched, usually a specially modified Cessna Citation (carrying the APG-66 radar from the F-16 fighter) to perform the intercept while the Orion maintains surveillance of the intruder from afar. As the intruder then lands at its covert destination it is then met by a USCG ground team using a hell-copter to perform the final arrests. The helicopter, and many of the smaller aircraft used are actually claimed ‘booty’ from earlier arrests as the aircraft then become the property of the USCG! The six Orions are now in place and hopefully will make the drug smuggling operation an even more difficult exercise than it was previously.