Newsdesk – Military Aviation

Aerospace Technologies of Australia (ex-GAF) will modify the new aircraft to Searchma- ster specifications over a two year period while the first delivery is scheduled to take place early in 1988.

Barra Sonobuoy Gets a Lift:

Prospects of large-scale world sales of the Australian-developed Barra ASW sonobuoy were litted recently with the development of an interface that allows the Barra system to integrate with almost any NATO-approved processing capability.

Previously Barra was only able to be interrogated via the AQS-901 sonics processor as fitted to existing RAAF Orion and RAF Nimrod long-range maritime patrol aircraft. The interface will now allow an export drive to get Barra, long considered a superior sonobuoy to its rivals, aboard the ASW inventories of many Western nations.

To further enhance the new sales potential. AWA has teamed with Plessey Australia to further develop, market and build the Barra, 30,000 of which have already been delivered over the past decade to the RAAF and RAF, A spokesman for the new team stated that they expect at least $10m of additional export sales this year alone with a potential of up to $50m a year from 1990 onwards.

Woomera to Become Raaf Combat Manoeuvring Range?:

The RAAF is examining proposals to convert the extensive facies existing at Woomera to accommodate a ly instrumented combat manoeuvring range.

The move would provide an excellent arena in which to practice and refine air combat manoeuvring and ground attack skills for the F-18 squadrons in addition to providing realistic multi-threat environments for the F-111 strike force. Only the Soviet Union has such large and secure areas for large-scale no holds barred ACM fight training operations. Similar ranges in the US are relatively confined in area due to the density of surrounding civilian air traffic and the proximity of large urban areas. If the project is given the go-ahead it is also expected that Australia would regularly lease out the facilities to the US Pacific Forces and other allies, a move that would reduce its operational costs somewhat.

GE to Provide Uprated 1700-401C Engines for Ran Seahawks:

GE’s Aircraft Engines Operation has announced the acceptance by the RAN of a proposal to install the latest T700 engine, the T700-401C, on RAN Seahawk helicopters. The -401C is an uprated version of the highly successful -401 model giving about 9% more power. It also incorporates several cost-reduction features. First deliveries to the RAN are scheduled for June next year.

The -401 model went into production in 1983 and since then has accumulated more than 125,000 engine flight hours (EFH) on US Navy helicopters. The RAN has ordered 16 Sikorsky S-708-2 Seahawks and the new -401C engines will be installed beginning with helicopter number three. The first two Seahawks are currently being assembled at Sikorsky plant at Stratford and are due to fly Soon These will subsequently be retrofitted with the -401C.

Qualification testing of this new T700 for the US Navy is presently in process and will be Completed later this year. GE has been Contracted for the production and introduction of the -400C for the US Navy Seahawks in the second quarter of 1988.

Defence Offsets Programme Working Well:

Defence Minister, Kim Beazley, recently stated that the Government’s new offsets policy was working well and the level of Australian industry involvement (AI) in Defence capital equipment contracts was considerably higher than previous levels.

“Since the new policy was introduced in January 1906, capital equipment contracts worth $746 milion have been placed by Defence, including contracts worth $419 million with overseas suppliers. ” Mr Beazley said. The total All component in the contracts was worth $346 million or an average of 46% of the contract price. This figure included Defence offsels contract obligations of $161 million or 29% of the imported content.

The Minister said the overall offsets obliga- sion achieved (29% of imported value) would have been exceeded had the US company. General Dynamics, accepted an obligation arising from the recent purchase of additional Standard surface-to-air missiles. “General Dynamics, currently the sole supplier of certain Standard missile systems to the Defence Force, has consistently refused to honour offsets obligations in Australia against Foreign Military Sales purchases,” Mr Beazley said He added that recent actions by the US Department of Defence to open up its equipment purchases to greater competition would help Australia to avoid similar situations in the future, particularly in the purchase of missile systems and replacement missiles.

Saudi’s Incapable of Operating Awacs:

According to Jane’s Defence Week. ly, the Royal Saudi Air Force is having great difficulty in coming to grips with both the air-borne and ground based AWACS system that it has acquired from the US. Consisting of the Boeing E-3 AWACS and placed into operation under the Peace Shield programme, the system looks set to be operated using US personnel for some considerable time owing to the Saudi’s reported inability to accommodate the level of technology embraced by a modern and highly sophisticated AWACS system.

On the other fronts, Egypt has been operating the simpler Grumman E-2C Hawkeye for a year now without undue problems while Pakistan is also trying to gain Washington’s approvals to acquire a minimum of two Hawkeyes Observers believe that the Pakistan request won’t be granted while that country pursues the active development of a nuclear weapons capability- Closer to home, and with minimal fanfare, a country that should have little trouble operating its new E-2Cs is Singapore, which received the of two in late March.

Vc-10 Breaks Nonstop Record Bid From England to Australia:

AnRAF VH-10K tanker broke the nonstop flying record between the the England and Australia when it arrived at Perth International Airport on 8/9 April. The aircraft completed the 9,000-mile fight from London Beacon to Perth Beacon in 15 hours 53 minutes, cutting two hours off the previous best time for a nonstop flight achieved by an RAF Vulcan bomber in 1963.

The aircraft No. 101 Squadron took off from its home RAF Brize Norton, Oxford shire, early on the morning of 8 April. It refuelled only twice in the air before the last leg of its journey to Perth The route took the VC-10 over France and Taly towards Cyprus where another RAF VC-10 tanker gave it its first load of extra fuel. From the East Mediterranean, the VC-10 Passed over Egypt and Saudi Arabia before refuelling again from an RAF Tristar tanker south of Sri Lanka The record achievement was a fitting way of marking the Squadron’s 70th Anniversary. The previous best time for the nonstop flight was held by another 101 Squadron aircraft, a Vulcan bomber, which completed the fight in 18 hours 6 minutes in 1963 with five refuelings.

Establishment of Raaf Elec. Tronic Warfare Liaison Facility:

The Minister for Defence, Mr Kim Beazley, has announced that the Directorate of Electronic Warfare (DEWADL) had been established in Adelaide, SA, to coordinate research into Australia’s electronic warfare requirements.

DEWADL is a RAAF unit located at the Defence Research Centre Salisbury, It is staffed by RAAF and local contractors, who work closely with DSTO scientists, civilian engineers and representatives of Australian industry. DEWADL will significantly improve the RAAF’s electronic warfare capability by providing an electronic warfare centre of excellence and promoting liaison between Service, scientific and commercial communities.

 American Aero-Space Plane Project Maturing:

The NASA-sponsored Aero-Space Plane is off and running under an initial $US3. 3bn grant from NASA and the US Defence Dept (and who says US civil airframers aren’t to some extent federally funded?) Designated the X-31, the revolutionary air. craft would initially be used to place payloads into low Earth orbit though later applications would conceivably include a number of military intelligence roles in addition to being used as a hypersonic airliner. Boeing. General Dynamics, Lockheed, McDonnell Douglas and Rockwell International have all been granted considerable research grants to develop the airframe concepts while on the propulsion side General Electric, Pratt & Whitney and Rocketdyne are working on a number of proposals including conventional ramjets and new generation scramjets. It is anticipated that the eventual construction of the X-31 would be split between most of the firms presently involved in the initial development stage owing to the enormity of the programme. The project itself is seen as a catalyst for growth within the industry and a vehicle to technologically ensure that the US aerospace industry remains well ahead of its Soviet and European competition in both the civil, military and space environments. If most of the primary technical milestones can be satisfactorily resolved, it is hoped that an X-31 research prototype could be flying by as early as 1993

CSA Begins Work on $6 Million Radar Software Project:

Computer Sciences of Australia has begun work on a $6 million project to convert experimental software developed for the RAAF’s Jindalee Over-The-Horizon Radar Faalty into an operational system Up to 30 CSA software engineers will be employed on the contract over the next three years. They will be located in the Defence Research rch Centre in Adelaide Jindalee is a revolutionary radar technique which enables defence forces to carry out surveillance over immense areas far beyond the limits of conventional radar. It detects targets by bouncing high frequency radio waves off the ionosphere. Reflected radio energy then gathered by very large antenna arrays and analysed by sophisticated computer Systems The subsequent data analysis involves complex computational tasks which have to take into account the frequently changing characteristics of the ionosphere Testing of the Jindalee system will continue to be carried out at Mt Everard, 40km north west of Alice Springs The Department of Defence Intends to build up to three operational Jindalee systems which will become an integral part in Australia’s def ence programme.

CSA, Australia’s largest software and systems engineering company, has worked on Jindalee for the past four years. The company has carried out software studies and made recommendations on future software and computer systems needs to the Defence Research Centre which is part of the Defence Science and Technology Organisation.

Crack Us Aerobatic Australia Bound:

Australian aviation enthusiasts have a lot in store as it is now fairly certain that the USAF Thunderbirds precision aerobatic team will visit Australia for the September opening of Brisbane’s new airport The Thunderbirds and their F-16s will also hopefully be present for the 1988 Bicentennial Airshow at Richmond In October. Also slated for this massive aviation expo are the US Navy Blue Angels and their F-18 Homets and the RAF Red Arrows •

AEW By RPV:

Grumman are working on a novel approach to providing full-scale AEW capability for small ships The research programme has been designted Design 754 and features a small RPV that would be able to operate rate from Spruance class destroyers. The Spruance is somewhat larger than our own FFG and DDGS though Grum- man are also planning to develop a version that will be compatible with these more widely used frigates, Basically, Design 754 features a swivel wing concept with propulsion coming from a single Williams F109 turbofan (as used aboard the Fairchild T-46) and a vertically aligned Rolls Royce XJ. 99 for takeoff for takeoff and landing. Basically the size of a of a homebuilt, Design 754 would take off from the ship vertically using its single vertical lift engine. It would then roll forward to attain airspeed while its wings deploy and the horizontal thrust engine reaches max power. The vertical (RR) engine is then shut down as sufficient forward airspeed is achieved and the RPV would then take up its required heading to transit to the picket area well ahead of the ship Grumman claim that around 20 minutes from launch the 754 can be at 10,000ft where its inverse synthetic aperture radar will be able to cover a sufficient radius to detect an inbound Sea skimming missile at around 120nm. As fuel bums off, the 754 will cruise climb to 27,000ft after two hours and finally to a station height of 37,000ft where it can lotter for the remainder of its 14-hour sonse. It then idles back to the ship with the help of its excellent glide characteristics and again uses the vertical Trust engine for the final portion of the fight Grumman claim a shipboard crew can maintain manual guidance out to a radius of around 200nm though this can be extended b by pre-programming a series of a series of coordinates into the RPV’s own nav unit. Its own AEW returns are data linked back to the ship or the unit may be set as a discreet passive listening post. Project 754 754 also has a very low radar return as the vehicle is primarily made of composites and travels at very low speed with minimal IR signature.

Grumman are already flying sub scale test versions of the concept and hope to be able to proceed with a full scale 754 it funding is approved in the coming US defence budget The concept though is one of great novelty and through its very simplicity may well prove viable in the longer term. With a claimed unit cost of under SA10m each, Grumman have reason to proceed with their 754 concept.

 RTM322 Helicopter Engine Runs in Sikorsky Seahawk:

Ground running of the Anglo-French RTM322 helicopter engine in a United States Navy Sikorsky SH-60S Seahawk has started ahead of schedule. Two of the Roks Royce Turbomeca engines have been installed in a new Seahawk at Skorsky’s West Palm Beach, Florida, flight test centre.

After completion of ground running a flying Programme of about 80 hours wil be undertaken at West Palm Beach and at the air test Centre at NAS Patuxent River.

Maryland Rolls Royce and Turbomeca anticipate that the Seahawk flight test programme will confirm the 2,100 shaft horsepower RTM322 as a demonstrated and readily available option to the existing US engines in the Seahawk and in other members of the Sikorsky Black Hawk family of of helicopters.

On the commercial front, Rolls Royce and Turbomeca have made proposals to the UK Ministry of Defence for the RTM322 as the Powerplant for the Westland WS-70 (the anglicised version of the Sikorsky S-70C Black for the Anglo-Italian EH-101. United Pratt & Whitney have a licence option with Rolls Royce Turbomeca Ltd that gives P&W the long-term rights to market and manufacture the RTM322 turboshaft engine for sale to the United States and Canadian Governments.