Newsdesk – Military Aviation

Orion Update:

The RAAF’s P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft will be updated 1n two areas of their electronics fit Now subject to final selection of the winning tenderer, the first involves improved Electronic Support Measures (ESM) for the Orions which will give the aircraft enhanced monitoring and surveillance capab1ht1es. The newer 10 P-3Cs will be the first upgraded with approval for the older aircraft expected to be granted next year. The finalist companies are AWA with Tadiran (Israel), Thorn EMI (now AWA Defence Industries) with Elta (Israel) and British Aerospace Australia with France’s Thomson CSF.

The RAAF also has a requirement to replace the obsolescent APS-115 radar currently installed on its Orions with a ship profile imaging, long-range surveillance ASW system. The project will not proceed until the ESM update is complete and is unlikely to be released before 1995. The new radar must be capable of periscope detection, high altitude maritime surveillance, target classification, target tracking, stand-off targeting, weather avoidance and navigation. It must also be compatible with the Orion’s existing CP-901 tactical computer.

 Civil/Military Review:

In a move which could have big implications for the airlines, the Minister for Defence, Kim Beazley. has announced the terms of reference for two reviews aimed at improving the defence organisation’s interaction with the community.

Mr Alan Wrigley has been appointed as Special Advisor to the Minister to carry out the reviews. The first will examine ways the Australian community could play a greater role in strengthening Australia’s security and how more weight can be given to the government’s policy of eliminating unnecessary duplication of civil and military skills and capabilities. The second review will deal with how arrangements governing the relationship of military authorities with the various levels of government and public administration can be made more relevant and effective during times of military conflict.

Mr Wrigley’s terms of reference for both reviews by implication include examining the use of the airlines (their equipment, personnel, expertise, administration and engineering capabilities) plus the civil authorities (such as the CAA) involved in aviation. In a time of war or

Centrespread

The addition of the Sikorsky S-70A Black Hawk helicopter to the inventory of the Australian Defence Force provides a considerable increase in capability over the sixties generation Iroquois that it replaces. Introduction of the Black Hawk also ushers in an era of considerable growth for Army Aviation. Army has now fully taken over the tactical utility helicopter role from the RAAF with Amberley based 9 Squadron’s Black Hawks now being firmly ensecond in their new khaki base at Garbutt, Townsville with 5 Aviation Regiment.

The ADF has a total of 39 S-70A Black Hawks on order with an additional 16 S-708 Seahawks destined for the Navy. RAN Seahawks will commence sea trials aboard the FFG-7 patrol frigates this Spring for an entry to operational service late next year.

any other national emergency, civil air transport obviously has much to offer to the defence of the realm in the above areas including a substantial carrying capacity thanks to a fleet of some 130 jet aircraft spread between Qantas, the various Ansett airlines, East-West and Australian Airlines alone. To that must be added a large number of turboprop airliners plus the corporate and commuter fleets

Asta’s Golden Years:

Aerospace Technologies of Australia Pty Ltd (ASTA). formerly the Government Aircraft Factory (GAF) celebrates its 50th birthday on July 1 this year, a golden anniversary which should not go unrecorded and one which covers a significant part of Australia’s aircraft manufacturing and associated history. The Government owned organisation began life as the Beaufort Division of the Department of Aircraft Production, established to give Australia some military aviation capability in the face of German and other nations’ expansionist plans in the late 1930s. The result was a general mobilisation of Australian industry, hundreds of previously non aviation firms becoming involved on a subcontract basis and helping increase the base of expertise in the aircraft manufacturing field.

The Bristol Beaufort light bomber was the first aircraft manufactured in Australia by the DAP, followed by the Beaufighter, the locally designed and highly successful Jindivik target drone and its piloted prototypes, the Pika, the Avro Lincoln, English Electric Canberra, Dassault Mirage (GAF was the prime contractor) and the current F-18 Hornet, for which ASTA is the prime contractor.

A major project was the indigenous Nomad twin turboprop utility aircraft, a useful aircraft which was unfortunately regarded as a mere “fillin’ by its Government masters, was never able to be marketed properly and subsequently sold to only a fraction of its potential. It was sacrificed in order to make way for the F-18 programme.

Mention should also be made of the company’s activities in the missile field, projects such as the Malkara which became the standard heavy anti-tank weapon of the British Royal Armoured Corps from the late 1950s and the Ikara shipboard anti-submarine homing torpedo missile launcher which serves not only with the RAN but also the British and Brazilian Navies. Both the Malkara and Ikara were subject to production runs of over 1,000 units.

Today, ASTA is much more than a builder and assembler of aircraft. It is a subcontractor to the world’s major airliner manufacturers, its heavy maintenance and overhaul activities are growing and it is involved in all the major aspects of the modern aerospace industry including electronics and composites. A recent contract from Boeing worth more than $100m involves the construction of 300 shipsets of the composite rudder system for the Boeing 757, while the company has also recently taken over the assembly of the Sikorsky Seahawk helicopters on order for the RAN.

New South African Fighter:

South Africa’s Atlas Aircraft is reportedly developing a new two seat, twin engined multirole fighter to replace the SAAF’s Mirage Ills not destined to be converted to upgraded Cheetah configuration in addition to the SAAF’s Canberra, Buccaneers and later on, Mirage F1s.

Code named ‘Cava’, the new fighter is believed to be of approximately the same size as the Mirage 4000 and will enter service in the mid to late 1990s. Over the past year several hundred Israeli designers and technicians made redundant by the cancellation of Israel Aircraft Industry’s Lavi fighter programme have been recruited by Atlas. Drawings of the Cava reveal a delta wing with canards attached to the side of the engine intakes, what appear to be full span leading edge slats, a tandem cockpit arrangement, a short coupled fuselage and large vertical tail surfaces reminiscent of the Tomado.

Bhp Wins Lads Navy Airborne Survey System Contract:

BHP Engineering Pty Ltd has won a $40m contract to supply Navy with an airborne laser system to measure Australia’s shallow water coastline – the biggest breakthrough in chart making since Captain Cook discovered Australia. BHP (E) would now produce and trial the Laser Airborne Depth Sounder (LADS) system.

LADS is a cost-effective system designed by Defence scientists in Adelaide to provide accurate shallow water depth measurements (0-50 metres) for the production of nautical charts. LADS will be capable of surveying at 10 times the rate of a conventional survey by ship. Australia has the largest continental shelf in the world – 26 million square kilometres – only 30% of which is charted to adequate standards. In a single year a LADS equipped aircraft can survey about 34,000 square kilometres of coastal waters. That is equivalent to charting the entire Great Barner Reef area in about six years – a task still incomplete 218 years after Captain Cook’s voyage of discovery.

 New Company Now Running Defence Dockyard and Factories:

Australian Defence Industries, a new Government owned company which will run the defence factories and dockyard formerly run by the Department of Defence, officially commenced business on May 10.

The new company had taken over the operations of the Office of Defence Production (ODP). Australian Defence Industries will now be the nation’s largest defence manufacturer with 6,800 employees with an annual turnover of $400m.

The new company will manage 11 separate establishments in three states including munitions, ordnance factories and military clothing as well as Garden Island Dockyard.

According to Defence Minister, Kim Beazley. the creation of ADI will help to fulfil a key objective of the 1987 Defence White Paper which was to place Government owned defence industry on a more commercial footing. In recent years ODP has undergone extensive rationalisation aimed at improving the overall efficiency, productivity and competitiveness of government owned defence production. These included the sale of Williamstown Dockyard, the creation of a new company. Aerospace Technologies of Australia, from the old Government Aircraft Factories and significant work force reductions

Us Budgetcuts:

After several cuts and revisions, the US defence budget has left several major projects out in the cold.

Anticipated cancellations include the Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft (although it appears that initial testing will continue for the moment), the Grumman F-14D fighter (with remanufacturing of earlier aircraft to F-14D standard continuing) and termination of the McDonnell Douglas F-15E and AH-64 programmes after 1991. Other programmes effected include the B-2 bomber (delayed by a year), the BAe/McDonnell Douglas T-45 Goshawk naval trainer (initial purchases delayed mainly to correct some deficiencies) and the Phoenix missile which will not continue beyond 1990. Some major programmes remain intact, however, the F-16, AV-8B Harrier II and P-3C Orion among them.

 Iroquois for PNG:

The Australian government will provide four ex-RAAF Bell UH-1 Iroquois helicopters to the Papua New Guinea Defence Force.

The deal also includes a two year training package. At the moment the PNG Defence Force operates no helicopters and therefore has no pilots trained to fly them. Its current fleet consists of six Douglas C-47 Dakotas, four GAF Nomad Missionmasters (out of seven originally supplied by Australia) and three IAI Aravas.

Navy Concerned Over Nsca Rumours:

Repercussions continue from the NSCA debacle as Navy clarifies confused press reports.

Late in 1988 the Royal Australian Navy reached agreement in principle with the now defunct Victoria division of the NSCA to allow Navy pilots to be seconded, two at a time and for six month stints, as copilots in NSCA’s Bell 4128.

Deputy Chief of Naval Staff Rear Admiral Peter Sinclair said that the idea had not even reached the Memorandum of Understanding stage, but promised benefit to both sides. “We had a temporary surplus of pilots because of slippage in the Seahawk project,” he said. *This seemed to be a good way of keeping their hours up without any cost to the taxpayer. ” But the Navy had reckoned without the less responsible sections of the nation’s press. “I’ve had a journalist accuse us of wasting taxpayers’ money, doing civilian pilots out of jobs, helping a private organisation compete unfairly in the commercial area and other things that don’t even bear repeating. ” Admiral Sinclair said “As far as we could see, the market wasn’t exactly awash with pilots qualified for NSCA’s type of operation, but it had a lot in common with Navy work As for unfair competition, all I can say is what competition?” Asked how the Navy had too many pilots when the other services were complaining about shortages, Admiral Sinclair said that the shortages were in specific fixed wing duties. “We have pilots on loan to the RAAF, the Army. the USN and the RN,” he said.

Jindivik Lives On:

That great Australian aerospace success story, the Jindivik unmanned target aircraft, is to be offered in a new role. that of surveillance.

The Jindivik’s manufacturer, Aerospace Technologies of Australia (ASTA) will develop the current Mk. 4A for the role and the aircraft will be capable of carrying a 500lb payload 1,000 nautical miles at altitudes up to 65,000 feet if the optional long span wings are fitted. Suitably equipped, the surveillance Jindivik fits neatly into the medium range category as defined by the United States Services Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV) programme.

The prototype Jindivik flew in August 1952 and was the first application for the Rolls-Royce Viper turbojet engine, developed versions of which have powered the Jindivik ever since. Production of the original drone ended in 1986 after 502 had been built, most of them for service with Australia and Great Britain, the latter receiving 234 examples. Swe- den bought 10 and the US Navy 42.

The Jindivik’s simplicity, ease of recovery. maintenance and relaunch and operational effectiveness remain strong virtues, while the constant reduction in size and weight of its necessary electronics over the years has left it with excellent payload volume/weight characteristics.

B-2 Flying Soon?

The Northrop B-2’fly- ing wing’ bomber should be making its maiden flight sometime this July or August, according to a senior United States Air Force officer.

Full-scale structural testing of the futuristic aircraft is complete, the F118 engine is production qualified and testing of the escape system, fuel system, landing gear and auxiliary power system are complete while laboratory testing of the environmental control system, avionics and flight control system should be completed by the time these words are read According to the USAF, preparations for the B-2 flight test programme are the most extensive for any aircraft, including the space shuttle The first flight will be from Palmdale, California to nearby Edwards Air Force Base and will reach 10,000 feet. The landing gear will remain extended throughout and the B-2’s second flight will take place five or six weeks after the first one. The complete flight test programme will involve six aircraft and take four years to complete though this may be stretched out further if US defence budget cuts continue

Caribou’s 25th:

A ceremony, flying display, static displays and a reunion dinner late in April at RAAF Richmond marked an important milestone in the history of the RAAF-the 25th anniversary of the entry to service of the de Havilland Canada Caribou tactical transport. Since 1964 some 29 Caribou have served with the RAAF – including on active service in Vietnam – and the type is still without peer for operations in forward areas and from short, unprepared airstrips. Powered by two 1,450hp Pratt & Whitney A·2000 radial pistons engines, the Caribou could be considered an anachronism in these days of high technology aircraft, but the fact remains that if the Army wants 32 troops or three tonnes of cargo delivered to a dirt strip close to hostile forces, the Caribou can still do it better than anything else, Twenty one Caribou remain on strength, flying with the RAAF’s No.35 Squadron (Townsville) and 38 Squadron (Richmond), the latter also assuming responsibility for aircrew training.anniversary of the entry to service of the de Havilland Canada Caribou tactical transport. Since 1964 some 29 Caribou have served with the RAAF – including on active service in Vietnam – and the type is still without peer for operations in forward areas and from short, unprepared airstrips.

Powered by two 1,450hp Pratt & Whitney A·2000 radial pistons engines, the Caribou could be considered an anachronism in these days of high technology aircraft, but the fact remains that if the Army wants 32 troops or three tonnes of cargo delivered to a dirt strip close to hostile forces, the Caribou can still do it better than anything else, Twenty one Caribou remain on strength, flying with the RAAF’s No.35 Squadron (Townsville) and 38 Squadron (Richmond), the latter also assuming responsibility for aircrew training.