Defence Update

AEW&C Project planning, as with a number of other important projects, is under the direction of Air Commodore Errol Walker, the Director General (Air) in the Force Development Division of the Australian Defence Force Headquarters (HQADF).

DGFD (Air) earlier this year commissioned the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) to examine how Australian industry might be maximised in the procurement of the AEW&C systems. The DSTO report, with a detailed analysis of the issues, was completed in early November.

The prospect of substantial All in the project will now be further considered by HQADF and in the PDS. Software integration is seen as a major part of Australian industry involvement. Systems integration and major equipment components are two other key areas which will be of interest to local industry.

A Major Capability Submission is expected to flow from the PDS in 1995, and prepare the way for source selection. The RAAF has been interested in securing AEW&C capability for more than two decades. However the high cost of the primary existing system, the USAF Boeing AWAC E-3 Sentry using a 707 airframe, was always seen as prohibitive.

At one stage it was contended that the cost of four such aircraft, even with lessor system capabilities, could run to $1. 2 billion. The E-3 AWACS is now operated not only by the US, but by Britain, Saudi Arabia, France, and NATO. The Australian Government and Defence decided some years ago to wait until technology breakthroughs presented lower cost AEW radar alternatives. The time is now seen as having arrived, or that it will have been proven by the time Australia is ready to process an order.

The Year-of-Decision is now put at 1996/97, which represents more than 20 years since the acquisition of AEW for the RAAF was first mooted.

Some of the contenders in the race could be: • Boeing (USA), with an AWAC system solution in a 767, for which Japan’s Defence Agency has signed for two aircraft, with options for up to four more.

• Ericsson (Sweden) with its ERIEYE phased array radar, which is approved for production for the Swedish Defence Force on a Saab 340 platform. A Fokker 50 platform is also being offered.

• Grumman/Lockheed (USA) with an updated E-2C Hawkeye APS-145 Group 11 system in either a C-130 or P-3 airframe. The E-2 Hawkeye is in service with he US Navy and the Defence Forces of Israel, Japan, Singapore and is on order for Taiwan. .

• Israeli Aircraft Industries (IAI), with the Phalcon phased array solution on a 707 platform. This system has been flight tested and is under operational development. Two 707 Phalcon systems have been sold to Chile. The first is scheduled for delivery in mid 1994.

• Lockheed (USA), who separately from Grumman, is likely to offer a traditional radar either in the C-130 or P-3 Orion alternatives.

• Thomson CSF (France), with a phased array radar mounted in underwing pods.

• Westinghouse (USA) with its MESA phased array solution in pods on a C-130 Hercules.

Further it is anticipated that before the PDS is over, other solutions will be offered. There are developments mentioned overseas which support this prospect.

For example, the UN Navy is proposing a programme (E-X) which would replace the USN Fleet’s E-2C Hawkeye around the year 2010. That would seem a bit too late to catch the RAAF’s interest, but early new solution proposals by three companies reportedly interested, are likely to be assessed. The details of Grumman’s improved E-2C system have not been made public so far. But Lockheed has been talking about offering a phased array radar mounted in a triangular dome above a S-3 Viking aircraft.

An S-3 type aircraft also is being studied by Boeing, with a phased array radar embedded in its diamond shaped wing.