Newsdesk – Military Aviation

Used successfully during the Gulf War, UAVs have a number of advantages over traditional intelligence gathering assets such as helicopters and ground patrols. Remotely piloted vehicles allow the transmission of real time images from the battlefield, while being unmanned they do not place a pilot at risk, allowing them to be flown into hostile environments which may be too dangerous for other assets. Being small, silent (at their operating altitude) and essentially invisible to radar and the Mk 1 eyeball, they are difficult to counter and yet can provide long endurance real time TV and IR images of the area in question which are unobtainable by any other practical means.

Testing of the drones took place during August at RAAF Tindal, while further testing will occur at Tully in Queensland.

 Weipa Work Begins:

Construction of the RAAF’s latest bare bones base at Weipa has begun.

RAAF Base Scherger, located 26km east of Weipa on Cape York Peninsula will be completed and fully operational by June 1999. The base will have a 3050m main runway, parallel taxiway and high speed exit taxiways (designed for aircraft up to Boeing 707 size), and initial plans call for 10 aircraft shelters and ordnance aprons for F-111s and F/A-18s, along with parking aprons for larger aircraft. Accommodation and mess facilities for 400 personnel will also be built.

When construction work is completed in six years time, RAAF Scherger will complete the chain of northward orientated bases that span from RAAF Learmonth at Exmouthin the west, through to Townsville in the north east.

Russian Missiles Cause Concern:

US military officials are calling for the upgrading of AIM-9Sidewinder and AIM-120 AMRAAM capabilities in light of the numbers of extremely capable Russian AAMS entering service with third world countries.

The Russian developed AA-11 and AA-12 in particular are causing great concern as Pentagon planners fully realise the capabilities and potential of these weapons. The AA-11 combined with a helmet mounted sight (as on the MiG-29) is thought to have a better performance envelope in many areas in the hands of a well-trained pilot than the AIM-9M Sidewinder.

To counter the Russian missile the Pentagon has opened a competition to produce an AIM-9X capable of equalling or exceeding the performance of the AA-11. Improvements would need to be made to the seeker, data processing ability and the airframe.

The medium range radar guided AA-12 meanwhile is thought to have a greater range and higher intercept speed than even the new AIM-120 AMRAAM. Improvements to the AMRAAM would centre around the missile’s propulsion system, allowing greater range and higher speeds. As well as looking at better solidrocket motors, other proposals include using air breathing ramjet engines, which could have the potential to extend the AIM-120’s range by half.

The AA-11 and AA-12 are in service with more than twelve nations, including China, North Korea and Iran. In our region it is likely that Malaysia, which has recently ordered 18 MIG-29s, will also become an operator of these missiles.

 Baеa Wins Navy Contract:

British Aerospace Australia has been chosen to provide aircraft component maintenance for the RAN at NAS Nowra.

The four year contract, the latest in a range of Defence Commercial Support Programme contracts, involves the off aircraft maintenance of components for the Navy’s Seahawk, Sea King, Jetranger and Squirrel helos, plus the service’s two HS. 748 EW aircraft.

BAeA already the RAN’s Sea King helicopter simulator complex, the Tidbinbilla Deep Space Communications Complex near Canberra and the Army’s Rapier SAM system repair facility in South Australia.

 Iraq Rebuilds Capability:

Despite the hammering it took during the Gulf War, Iraq’s military production capability has largely been rebuilt.

AUS Government report into the status of Iraq’s weapons plants found that the broad based capability has largely been rebuilt allowing the country to refurbish much of the 250 fighters and 2500 main battle tanks which survived the war, and giving it the ability to rapidly build up military armaments production should it choose to do so. In addition a recent report prepared by the US Air Force noted that Iraq has greatly increased the number of airfields, SAM and Scud ballistic missile sites, with US intelligence estimating the country still has more than 200 Scuds in its inventory.

UK Studies Ballistic Missile Defence:

The UK is to issue a pre feasibility study contract into an antiballistic missile defence system.

Heightened concern against the growing ballistic missile threat was sparked by the Gulf War, when Iraqi Scuds were fired at Israel and Saudi Arabia. A growing number of nations possess or are acquiring ballistic missiles, including world pariahs such as Iraq, North Korea and Libya. Deployed from North Africa or the Middle East, long range versions of such systems which are presently under development in North Korea with Middle East funding would pose a menacing threat, especially if equipped with nuclear or chemical warheads.

North Korea in fact has already tested a new intermediate-range missile with sufficlent range to threaten Japan. Such a missile could reach Israel from Iran and major US bases and European capitals from Libya.

The UK study may be a precursor to a Joint European missile defence system.

Adi Awarded C3 Contract:

The Department of Defence has awarded an Australian Defence Industries lead team a contract to replace the RAAF’s current air defence ground environment command and control systems.

The $36m contract covers the installation of state of the art data processing and communications equipment. New command and control units will also be constructed at RAAF Tindal and Williamtown which will receive data from a number of surveillance systems, ranging from the Jindalee Over the Horizon Radar Network (JORN), air defence radars, civil and military ATC radars andairand seaborne surveillance platforms.

The centres will, during times of alert and tension in conjunction with other RAAF operational centres, play key roles in monitoring airspace and controlling weapon systems.

ADI will take overall responsibility for the project including management, systems integration, installation and logistic support, while Westinghouse will provide air defence software and AWADI will provide the communications sub system.

Work on the project was due to begin immediately, it is scheduled to be completed in two years.

 Russia Spares Production, Cuts Development:

Russia’s massive military industrial base has been boosted by plans to keep military spending at current levels, although research and development will be pared back, according to the US Defence Intelligence Agency.

The maintaining of procurement at current levels is a major reprieve for the industry, which feels that cuts to production have been implemented too quickly and have cut too deep, causing concern about the loss of capabilities. Spending on research and development however will be cut back by between 10 and 30% over 1993 levels.

The Russian aviation industry is facing major problems as it struggles to cope with greatly reduced military orders, both from Russia and export sales, while conversion to civilian production has been slow and hesitant at best. Many plants have continued to produce military hardware despite not having any orders to keep their production capabilities and workers occupied.

Export sales are regarded as a major means to reduce unemployment and increase needed foreign currency earnings, but military and other aviation sales to new countries outside the Soviet Union’s sphere of influence have not materialised. Only Malaysia has purchased aircraft, 18 MIG-29s, while Abu Dhabi has ordered 450 armoured personnel carriers.

The unproven nature of Russian hardware and concerns about spares are major inhibiting factors. In this light current customers such as India and China are becoming increasingly more important.

 MDC Honours ASTA:

McDonnell Douglas has paid ASTA’s Components Division a complement by naming it as a preferred supplier at the silver level.

The silver level honour is the second highest obtainable in MDC’s improvement award scheme, and it was bestowed largely because ASTAhad achieved a 100% product acceptance rate for 12 consecutive months, and a 97% on time delivery rate for six consecutive months. Other factors included ASTA’s business processes and its use of statistical process control systems.

ASTA, which manufactures trailing edge flaps, being responsible for full rate production and material acquisition, and shrouds for the F/A-18 Hornet, is only the second company outside the USA to be nominated as a silver level supplier. McDonnell Douglas’s award system aims to improve the company’s ability to produce and deliver quality products to its customers by identifying suppliers “committed to customer satisfaction by providing high quality, technically excellent and affordable products on time”.

Suppliers’ fees account for 70% of the cost of a McDonnell Douglas aircraft. MDC spent $US2. 3bn ($A3. 4bn) on suppliers’ parts and materials in 1991.

NZ to Upgrade Orions?:

The Royal New Zealand Air Force is currently studying a structural upgrade of its six P-3K Orion maritime patrol aircraft.

Current usage of the fleet would see the aircraft reach the end of their useful airframe life in 2000. The life prolonging upgrade would centre around replacing the fuselage centre section lower skin, horizontal and the wings with the wet wing of the P-3C. Other modifications would be made to allow fuel dumping, and the aft engine nacelles refurbished. A visit by a Lockheed team to the RNZAF Woodburn base has confirmed that the project could be performed in house, with work taking four years to modify all the aircraft.

New Zealand was the first export customer for the Orion, and while the aircraft underwent a modest upgrade in the early 1980s, many original systems remain. The RNZAF believes that a thorough systems upgrade would be warranted following any structural upgrade.

UK Reshapes Military:

In the wake of a $1. 05bn budget cut to defence funding, the UK has devised a new military strategy based on mobility and out of area fighting.

Aviation related decisions include the disbandment of a Tornado F. 3 fighter squadron, while reinforcing support for the Eurofighter 2000. Total Tornado F. 3 numbers will be reduced to 100 with the disbandment of No 23 Squadron, and the reduction of the remaining squadrons’ inventories to 13 aircraft. Less emphasis is being placed on the Tomado F. 3 because of the greatly diminished threat of a direct strategic air attack on the United Kingdom.

Reflecting the change in posture to a more flexibleresponse, the policy endorses currently envisaged attack and transport helicopter procurement, plus the construction of a new helicopter carrier, while retaining the current three VSTOL Invincible class Harrier Carriers. The policy also endorses the development of two new air-to-ground missiles, while leaving the door open for a new anti ballistic system (refer Newsdesk different story).

 Japan to Add a Third 747:

The Japanese government intends to purchase another Boeing 747-400 for VIP and troop transport use.

About $US264m ($A390m) has been allocated in the supplementary FY93 budget for the purchase and fitting out of the aircraft, which will join two others already operated for the Government by the Japan Air Self Defence Force (JASDF) at Chitose AB. The purchase is a goodwill measure in the light of Japan’s huge trade surplus with the USA. In addition to the 747, a third Falcon 900 corporate jet has also been ordered for regional VIP use, to be operated by the navy.

Kfir to Get Lavi Avionics:

Israel Aircraft Industries is offering a number of potential customers an upgraded Kfir featuring the avionics designed for the cancelled Lavi multirole fighter.

The centerpiece of the new avionics package for the Kfir C-10 will be the EL 2032 multimode radar with look down shoot down and track while scan capabilities. Other features include a new main mission armament and display computer and a ring laser gyro inertial navigation system, while

Centrespread

Flying over the South Australian countryside is that grandest old lady of the skies, the Douglas C-47 Dakota.

There is perhaps no better testament to the success and durability of the original DC-3/C-47 design than that the type remains in RAAF service after half a century as a flying testbed for the latest in radar surveillance technology. C-47B Dakota A68-86 of the RAAF’s Aircraft Research and Development Unit (ARDU) has most recently been undergoing trials with the Defence Science and Technology Organisation developed AUSAR, or Australian Synthetic Aperture Radar.

AUSAR is capable of producing high resolution ground mapping images at long range, and is particularly useful for detecting targets such as trucks and tanks. AuSAR has been developed with the intention of providing the ADF with a low cost high accuracy surveillance system (for full details refer p92 June 92 AA).

Dakota A65-86 was built in 1944 and was delivered to the RAAF in April 1945 via the USAAF. It has been on the strength of Nos 35 and 36 Squadrons, the RAAF Trans- port Flight in Japan, ARDU, 38 Squadron in Malaysia, and 10 Squadron, before returning to ARDU in 1978.

the cockpit will be considerably revised with a head up display, up front control panel and two multi function displays (one MFDiscolour)plus HOTAS (Hands On Throttle And Stick) controls. The new avionics will be linked by a 1552 B databus, while another new feature of the aircraft will be an air-to-air refuelling probe.

Potential customers are current Kfir operators Ecuador and Columbia, the Philippines which is currently negotiating to purchase 14, and other new users with ex Israeli air force aircraft.

Oz Company Awarded Dassault Contract:

Melbourne-based company, Condor Engineering has been awarded a $4. 5m contract to supply wing ribs for the Falcon Jet family.

Condor will supply 250 sets of wing ribs (three pairs of wing ribs per aircraft) for Dassault’s Falcon 900 and 2000 business jets. Although Condor has been a subcontractor to both ASTA and Hawker de Havilland for the past 10 years, this is its first direct contract with an overseas aerospace manufacturer.