Defence Update

Nine aircraft of the first batch of 14 Black Hawks should have been delivered at the time of publication of this issue of Australian Aviation. However the delivery timetable is running late due to early production difficulties in the United States which were compounded last year by the major Australian sub-contractor, Hawker de Havilland running into severe shortages of skilled labour at its Bankstown plant.

The programme to deliver 16 Sikorsky S-70B-2 Seahawk helicopters in two batches of eight each also has been subjected to delays because of production 1ine problems and workforce shortages. Although programmed to start in January 1988, deliveries will not be seen in Australia until about mid 1989.

The first two Seahawks assembled and tested in the United States were to have reached Australia in the second half of 1988. Now, after completing their trials, they are due to be shipped to Australia in a month or so for acceptance at the Naval Air Station, Nowra on the NSW south coast.

Because of local production staff shortages, the remaining six helicopters in the first batch ordered by the Navy are having to be assembled and tested in the US and delivered to Australia at the rate of one a month from early in the second half of this year.

In the meantime, amid fears that the last eight Seahawks also would have to be put together in the US rather than in Australia, there have been intense negotiations about moving this task of final assembly and testing from Hawker de Havilland to another Australian company. At the time of writing before the negotiations were complete, it seemed obvious that the Govenment’s commercialised former Government Aircraft Factories in Melbourne, now known as Aerospace Technologies of Australia (ASTA) would be co-opted into the programme to provide at least some of the originally planned Australian Industry Involvement (All).

While there could be some cost savings in Sikorsky doing the final assembly and test tasks on the first eight Seahawks, the RAN and the Defence Department has remained keen to have the Lot 2 aircraft assembly and testing done in Australia, subject to satisfactory terms, conditions and financial arrangements. This is also seen as vital for the future through-life support of the aircraft in Australia.

There will be a break of about six months between the delivery of the last of the first batch and the start of the next eight. The RAN should have the last of its first batch of eight S-70B-2s in the first quarter of 1990, with the second group starting later that year. Current cost estimates put the order of the 39 troop carrying Black Hawks at about $760m and that of the much more sophisticated anti-submarine warfare (ASW) Seahawks at $610m.

The new Director of Helicopter Projects at Air Force Office is Army Colonel Rick Nevile, a previous CO of the Army’s 1st Aviation Regiment at Oakey on the Darling Downs in southern Queensland. He has replaced the original Black Hawk project team leader, Group Captain Terry Wilson, who is now on the staff of the Headquarters, the Australian Defence Force.

The RAN’s Seahawk helicopter Director is Captain Vic Battese, who has filled that role for more than a year now after being in the project office in the US.

The first Black Hawk battlefield helicopter was delivered to the RAAF in the US from Sikorsky’s Stratford, Connecticut plant late in 1987 after several months of delay. It was disassembled and flown to RAAF Base, Amberley, Qld on February 27, 1988 reassembled and test flown by RAAF No. 9 Squadron which was then phasing out of Iroquois helicopters.

At that stage it was expected that the first Australian assembled Black Hawk would be handed over to the RAAF in mid March, 1988 and that the last of the first phase order of 14 would be delivered about September, some months prior to the relocation to Townsville and the transfer of No. 9 Squadron aircraft to the first squadron of No. 5 Army Aviation Regiment.

Also, the first two Seahawks built in the US were then due in Australia in September, 1988, and the first Australian-assembled Seahawk was scheduled to roll out at Bankstown in November.

As we have explained various slippages occured. The first Black Hawk assembled at Bankstown was handed over to the RAAF at a ceremony at the plant on May 12. Work on the planned first Australian assembled Seahawk began earlier in the year.

The Seahawks are to operate from the Navy’s FFG-7 Guided Missile Frigates of which there are four which were built by Todd in the USA. Two more are being constructed at the Williamstown dockyard in Melbourne. The prime role for the Seahawk is ASW and over the horizon targeting. A surface surveillance capability is also expected to be developed.

By May, 1988 Sikorsky had awarded contracts worth more than $130m for components, technical services and training for many of the 20 Australian aerospace companies involved. At the Black Hawk handover ceremony, the then Managing Director of Sikorsky Aircraft Australia Limited, Mr Jim Harrell, noted it was the first Sikorsky helicopter ever built outside the United States. Harrell has since returned to the US and his position has been taken over by a former RAN officer, Captain Andy Craig.

At the time, Hawker de Havilland’s Commercial Director, Mr Peter Smith, pleased that the handover of the first Black Hawk marked the culmination of almost 20 years of helicopter activities by HdH, was looking forward to expanding the relationship with Sikorsky and moving into the international field on Black Hawk production and maintenance act/cities. While those hopes remain, the slippages which became apparent in the second half of 1988 due to shortages of skilled technical personnel, represent a significant setback.

A crucial factor was that after having successfully conducted a national and overseas advertising campaign to fill vacant positions on the Bankstown production line, many of these skilled tradesmen were ‘poached’ away by other local aerospace companies, including the airlines who offered better packages.

The early delays on the delivery of kits and parts from Sikorsky, the staff shortages and a slow down in the modification of the original design to meet RAAF/Army requirements compounded to effect a delay in the programme which had grown to four months in 1988. Additionally, one of the first Black Hawk kits had to be sent back to the US to act as a ‘trial horse’ for further modifications. The first Seahawk kit was also sent back due to problems in developing a new avionics package to suit the RAN’s specialised requirement. This also put the Seahawk delivery schedule back by four months at that stage. The first new Black Hawk helicopters were formally commissioned into seNice with the RAAF in a ceremony at Amberley on September 15, 1988 attended by the Defence Minister, Mr Kim Beazley. He acknowledged the delivery schedule had slipped but noted that the introduction of the Black Hawks into seNice was progressing well.

The RAAF’s Chief of Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Ray Funnell said that the Black Hawk was a unique acquisition for the Australian Defence Force (ADF) and was more capable than its US counterpart. It has more powerful engines, a sophisicated automatic flight control system, a rescue hoist and enhanced avionics. It has an improved durability gearbox which is also to go in US UH-60 Black Hawks from late this year. It also is the first ADF aircraft to be equipped with the newly developed Navstar Navigation System which uses satellites to provide aircraft with accurate positional information.

In a recent interview, Colonel Nevile said that Black Hawks were now being delivered at the rate of one a month. The eighth aircraft was handed over in late January, and the ninth followed a month later. A highly qualified pilot on the Army’s Kiowa helicopters, Colonel Nevile’s regiment also flies fixed wing Nomads and Porters.

Meanwhile, on February 15, RAAF No. 9 Squadron formally became part of 5 Aviation Regiment as a squadron and during this year will build up to a complement of 14 Black Hawks. The Phase 2 order of 25 machines will replace the Iroquois which also form part of the composite No. 35 Squadron (also operating Caribou light transports) at Garbutt.

However, six of this latter order will be located at the School of Army Aviation at Oakey for conversion training on to type and six Black Hawks will be held as attrition aircraft. A contemplated gunship role for some Black Hawks has not proceeded at this stage and some Iroquois will be maintained in the short term to cover this requirement.

Some $17m has been spent on a works programme at Garbutt to accommodate 5 Aviation Regiment’s first Black Hawk squadron. This includes additional hangars, headquarters building and crew support facilities. Another $19m has been allocated for further works, including the provision of additional living quarters. While, another $5m is being spent to update the general facilities at Oakey.

Deliveries of all 25 aircraft in the second phase may now extend into 1991. The Black Hawks actually come to Australia from the Sikorsky plant as UH-60A models which are then modified to become S-70A-9 models.

Initially the Black Hawks are being flown by both RAAF and Army pilots and there is a programme to train more Army pilots. Army student pilots attend the RAAF basic flying training course at 1 FTS Point Cook, Vic, flying 140 hours on CT-4 Airtrainers over 20 weeks. They then move to RAAF No. 5 Squadron at Fairbairn, ACT, for training on Squirrels. This requires 74 flying hours over 11 weeks, and is then followed by an Iroquois final conversion course of 39 hours over six weeks. The requirements are more demanding for Army pilots than for the RAAF/RAN course because the Air Force and Navy pilots have already carried out training at 2 FTS, Pearce, WA on Macchi MB-326 jets.

Conversion to Black Hawks was carried out in 1988 at Amberley though this course is now being done at Garbutt and this training flight component will later move to Oakey. Initially some AMF pilots and one Army pilot were trained as instructors in the US. By early 1989 nine pilots and four instructors had converted to Black Hawks.

There has also been intensive ground crew training both for the RAAF and Army and the Aviation Regiment will be jointly manned to about 1993. Several AMF pilots have transferred to Army uniform with the rank of Major.

Captain Battese explained that the first two RAN S-70B-2 Seahawks were now due for handover in mid 1989. Earlier estimates had the delivery schedule starting in Januray, 1988, then May, 1988 and March, 1989. It was now expected that the first eight Seahawks would have been received by early 1990. The Phase 2 delivery starting later in 1990 would slow down to one aircraft every two months. Captain Battese said there would be a 12 months training period before a Seahawk was operationally embarked aboard an FFG frigate. This could be on HMAS Darwin, which had the required flight deck fitted during its US build, or HMAS Sydney, which has had an enlarged flight deck fitted during refitting at Garden Island Dockyard, Sydney.

The training period will also include development testing and logistic exercises to provide the ship and aircraft interface and operational support. This covers the RAST aircraft recovery system in the total support package and embedded stores. RAN planning initially allocates one Seahawk to each of the six FFGs, but there will be proving trials to allow for the possibility of two aircraft operating from each ship if circumstances dictate such a requirement. USN FFG-9s normally accommodate two helos.

Organisational level training, aircrew and technical systems training has already been carried out with Sikorsky in the US. There has also been one-off instructor training on SH-60B flying and simulators at the US Navy base at Mayport, Florida. Progress is being made on intermediate and depot level maintenance requirements. The Navy is continuing to plan with its tactical data hardware and software systems being located at the Naval Air Station, Nowra.

Negotiations with Sikorsky on the Black Hawk and Seahawk acquisitions and delivery delays have been led by Mr R Clarke Harris, the senior Vice President of Sikorsky Aircraft who has made nearly 50 trips to Australia in recent years.