Defence Update

The initial procurement contract for 14 Black Hawk helicopters was signed with the big US company, Sikorsky on May 29, 1986. A follow-on order of 25 Black Hawks was approved by the Government on May 8, 1987 and represents Phase 2 of the deal. All but three of the total of 55 are being assembled and tested by Hawker de Havilland, Bankstown, NSW.

The first S-70A-9, which was a configuration somewhat different to the US Army’s UH-60A Black Hawks, and which significantly differs from the RAN Seahawks, was flown in a RAAC-130 Hercules transport from the US to Amberley air base in southern Queensland on February 27 this year. It recently was on show, along with other Defence Force equipment, on the lawns fronting Parliament House in Canberra.

That aircraft, fully manufactured at Sikorsky’s main plant at Stratford, Connecticut, was handed over to the RAAF in the US on December 31, 1987. The first Australian assembled Black Hawk was handed over to the RAAF at the end of March.

Group Captain Terry Wilson is the Black Hawk helicopter Project Director. His deputy is the Army representative on the project team, Lieut Colonel Leon Kowall.

The RAN Helicopter Project Director is Captain Vic Battese, who was the RAN’s resident project manager in the US, before becoming overall Project Director. With the project now geared up to make deliveries later this year, Captain Battese has again been living in the US, where, as has Group Captain Wilson, he has been involved in one of the regular programme management reviews. Commander Paul Fothergill is the Deputy Director of the RAN Helicopter Project which is directed to putting the antisubmarine warfare/targeting surveillance Seahawks operating from the six FFG frigates, the last two of which are being built at Williamstown Dockyard, Vic.

The ownership of battlefield helicopters, including remaining Iroquois UH-1H, is to be transferred to the Army progressively from early 1989 which RAAF No9 Squadron will relocate from Amberley to new facilities at Townsville’s Garbutt base. The transfer is still a sore point within the RAAF, but is accepted as fait accompli. The Army will raise a new unit, the 5th Aviation Regiment in Townsville. When complete the regiment will be equipped with 27 Black Hawks and will have the capability to lift an Army company group in a single lift. Six attrition Black Hawks will also be located at Townsville. The remaining six ordered with the two batches will be used for training at the School of Army Aviation, Oakey, Qld. The transfer of the battlefield helicopters to Army control is expected to be completed by December, 1992.

Apart from the first Black Hawk in the initial order of 14, the other machines in the Phase 1 procurement are being assembled and tested locally by Hawker de Havilland and are being delivered between April and December this year in time for the shift from Amberley. Deliveries of Phase 2 aircraft are scheduled between July, 1989 and September, 1990. After a month’s gap from the delivery of the first aircraft in this phase, deliveries are planned at two a month.

The originally announced project costs of $179m (September, 1985 prices) and $288. 4m (1986 prices) these days probably equates to current years dollars of around 600m. This does not include provisions for providing new facilities, particularly at Townsville.

The RAAF will continue to manage the acquisition programme throughout the project. The contract with Sikorsky is resulting in work worth more than $190m for the Australian industry. This includes:

• Assembly and test of 38 Black Hawks at HOH, Bankstown;

• Manufacture of rotor blade skins, cores and components;

• Manufacture of intermediate and tail rotor gearboxes;

• Manufacture of vendor items; and

• Participation in the design and integration of avionic systems.

The project has built upon the programmes initiated earlier to acquire eight Seahawks (later augmented to 16) for the RAN). Opportunities also are being developed for local industry to participate in collaborative programmes with Sikorsky.

As mentioned at the start, the initial Phase 1 programme has been delayed for some months but the project team does not expect this to affect significantly the overall programme. When No9 Squadron relocates to Townsville in early 1989, command will transfer from the RAAF to the Army, with the Squadron becoming A Squadron of 5th Aviation Regiment.

This will require an increase of about 400 Defence personnel to Townsville, many of them accompanied by wives and children. Funds have been programmed for upgrading and providing operational facilities and living accommodation at Townsville.

A number of RAAF helicopter pilots and one Army pilot undertook conversion training in the US. Additional Army aircrew and technical personnel are now being trained and some Army personnel have been posted to Air Force Squadrons.

Results of US Army and US Navy testing for Black Hawks for electromagnetic vulnerability (EMV), particularly with respect to the flight control system, are being closely monitored by the project team. Information so far obtained clearly indicates that the standard US Army Black Hawk can be operated safely in very high levels of electro-magnetic radiation. However, as the RAAF’s S-70A-9 configuration differs from the standard US Army UH-60A, some further EMV testing will be conducted on the S-70A-9 in the USA in mid 1988.

Further purchases of Black Hawk helicopters were foreshadowed in the 1987 Defence White Paper (Policy Information Paper). The feasibility and timetable for further acquisitions is under consideration within the Five Year Defence Programme (FYDP) and Budget considerations for future years.

As we earlier indicated the transfer of utility or battlefield helicopters from the Air Force to the Army created some ill feeling. At senior Defence levels, the Army won the right to operational control of the new Black Hawks on the grounds that air mobile forces are essential for the Army to rapidly deploy to meet credible contingencies in the north of Australia and that the transfer would allow greater integration of battlefield support for the land commander. An early test of this philosophy will come when the Australian Army’s combat division deploys in northern Australia in the big Kangaroo ’89 late next year.

The Black Hawks provide the capability to carry a company group (say 150 men) in a single lift. Each aircraft is capable of carrying a fully equipped infantry section of 10 men. The actual composition of the aircrew of two or three still is being debated. The RAAF currently operates No35 Squadron at Townsville as a composite Army-support squadron comprising Caribou light transports and Iroquois helicopters. When sufficient machines become available under the Phase 2 Black Hawk buy, this squadron will phase out its rotary wing element and it will become B Squadron of 5th Aviation Regiment.

The first contract for eight S-70B-2 Seahawks was signed on July 30, 1985, with a project cost of $US159m. This deal included an option to buy additional aircraft. This was taken up in May, 1986 under a new contract worth $US240m. Given currency changes and other costs due to the inflation rate, the project today is probably worth $600m or so in Australian dollars. The overall project costs include an allowance of around $50m to progressively modify the flight decks of three of the four FFG-7 frigates and include the RAST system (Rapid Assist Secure and Traverse) which ‘hooks’ the descending helicopter and hauls it down to the flight deck and secures it. The RAN’s fourth FFG, HMAS Darwin, was modified for Black Hawk operations before delivery in the US. To date the modifications have been carried out on HMAS Sydney at Garden Island Dockyard in Sydney and the remaining two, HMAS Canberra and HMAS Adelaide, will be modified during normal refits. The two Australian Frigates being built at Williamstown will incorporate the required changes.

While the Seahawk was developed around a Black Hawk Airframe, it is significantly different. This ‘marinisation’ programme included higher quality rivetting, a stronger undercarriage, partly to meet the RAST requirement, and the tail wheel moved forward to suit deck landings. The Seahawk has different weapons pylons and a different internal cabin configuration. It has entirely different avionics to meet its different roles and these required structural changes. The Seahawk also has a different rotor head designed to meet operations at sea. The avionics system meets the basic primary roles of ASW and ASST (anti-ship surveillance and targeting).

The RAN Seahawk will be operated differently to those used by the US Navy which follow the LAMPS Mk3 concept of providing a data link for processing raw sensor data back on the ship. The RAN philosophy is more in line with making the helicopter an aerial eyes-in-the-sky and thus providing an extension of the ship’s capabilities. The RAN has embedded the raw data processing in the aircraft, but still links tactical information.

Navy experts believe the S-70B-2’s sensor and tactical systems will be about the best available in the Western world and provide greater capability in the air. However getting the new systems right has caused some delay. The original acceptance by the RAN of the first Seahawk was planned for the end of 1987. But the research and development of the systems and integration of the tactical data system’s sub-sensors took longer than originally anticipated.

So the first of the two US manufactured Seahawks did not make its maiden flight of 17 minutes until December 4 last year. The two aircraft, after more testing, will be shipped to Australia later in the year, possibly about October. Their acceptance by the Navy in Australia could depend on shipping timetables and it is possible the first Australian-assembled Seahawk could come off the Bankstown production line before the US built machines get here. HOH and Sikorsky are trying to have the first roll-out by the end of September. By late March, HOH had received two kits from Sikorsky and had started modification work. Like the Black Hawk, there is significant Australian industry involvement in the Seahawk programme, although most components are being built in the US. The Seahawk delivery programme, although also running slightly late, should end in late 1989.

Air and ground crew training is due to start in the US by July. An Australian-based training programme will start up at Nowra in early 1989. About 60 personnel, of which one-third will be aircrew, are involved in the early training which is diverse. Aircrews are away about a month and the· technical people undertaking the maintenance course are away for more than four months. As presently planned, the Navy Seahawk will have a crew of three – pilot, tactical operator and sensor operator. The first Seahawk is not expected to be permanently embarked on an FFG frigate until early 1990. The programme thus allows about a year through 1989 for full operational development. But this will include Seahawks flying out to ships at sea to practice landings and takeoffs. Although the FFGs have a capability to embark two Seahawks, the RAN intends to equip each of the six FFGs with only one machine for normal peacetime operations. Two per ship may be used during major exercises or other special occasions.

So the split-up of the 16 Seahawks, once all are delivered, will see six regularly embarked at sea, four used in training support at Nowra, two for maintenance support, and four as the attrition reserve aircraft.

The RAN will recommission No816 Squadron to be the training and parenting air group squadron for the new Seahawks. The squadron has been flying Wessex helicopters and earlier flew the Fleet Air Arm’s front-line ASW Trackers.