Newsdesk — Military Aviation

The RAF’s Hercules order is valued at approximately $US1.3bn and should be ratified by the time these words are read. Perhaps ironically, the recently announced takeover of Allison by Rolls-Royce means the C-130J will have ‘British’ engines installed.

French Hawkeyes

France’s Aeronavale has ordered four Northrop Grumman E-2C Hawkeye early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft to fly from the forthcoming nuclear powered aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle.

The deal includes 100% offsets for French industry (excluding the value of the engines) and the first two aircraft are included in the 1995 French defence budget. The Charles de Gaulle will be commissioned in 1999 and will also carry Dassault Rafale multirole combat aircraft. A second nuclear powered carrier is also scheduled to enter French service.

The US Navy has also ordered some new E-2Cs, with four aircraft scheduled to be delivered in 1997 and three more in 1998.

Training Costs

Canada has meanwhile missed an opportunity to train foreign fighter pilots and therefore amortise some of its own training costs by being too expensive. According to Jane’s Defence Weekly, Kuwait asked the Canadian Department of National Defence if 36 F/A-18 Hornet pilots could be trained in Canada, but the price of $US4.4m each (excluding lead-in training on the CF-5) was considered too much. By comparison, the US Navy offered to train the pilots for $US1.4m each, but could not accommodate them for two or three years. This apparent short-sightedness means that Canada has also probably missed other opportunities with Kuwait, including setting up a training school there.

Upgrade For Argentine Skyhawks

The Lockheed Aircraft Service Co (LAS) has been awarded a $US200m contract to upgrade 36 Fuerza Aerea Argentina (FAA) A-4M Skyhawk attack aircraft.

The aircraft were purchased from the US Navy last year and join 29 A-4Ps already in service. The contract covers a three-year period and will involve depot-level inspections and rewiring, engine refurbishment, an avionics upgrade, pilot and mechanic training, spares provisioning and the preparation of technical documentation. The first 18 aircraft will be refurbished in the USA and the remainder at Cordoba in Argentina.

LAS is also involved in the privatisation of Argentina’s aircraft factory and maintenance depot at Cordoba and under a separate contract has been awarded a 25-year concession to manage the Cordoba facility. Completing the company’s big move into Argentina, LAS’s newly formed local subsidiary, Lockheed Aircraft Argentina SA (LAASA) has won a $US200m contract to provide aircraft maintenance services to the FAA for five years.

Usaf F-111s On Way Out

It looks as if the General Dynamics F-111 bomber’s days in USAF service are now well and truly numbered with the announcement that the remaining 54 bomber versions will be retired in 1996 followed possibly by the EF-111 Raven electronic jamming variant in 1997-99.

If this happens, it will leave Australia as the only F-111 operator in the world, bearing in mind that the RAAF and USAF were the only operators of the type. On the plus side for Australia is the fact that the USAF’s withdrawal of the F-111 will leave a substantial spares stockpile and it has been unofficially suggested that moves to acquire some of this are already underway. Indeed, the RAAF would have to do this to ensure that it can maintain an operational capability through to 2015, a time when both the existing F-111s and the F/A-18s would need to be replaced.

More Jayhawks Ordered

The US Air Force has exercised its sixth option of the Beech T-1A Jayhawk contract for 32 aircraft to be delivered between July 1996 and May 1997.

The Jayhawk is a military version of the Beechjet 400 small corporate jet and is used in a specialised undergraduate training programme for USAF airlift/tanker pilots. The latest purchase is worth $US127m and brings the total number of Jayhawks on firm order to 180.

Woomera Comeback Delayed

The planned re-emergence of the Woomera Rocket Range in South Australia has suffered a setback with the loss of the Japanese-launched EXPRESS (Experimental Re-Entry Space System) capsule shortly after liftoff in January.

The capsule was supposed to orbit the earth for five days and recover to Woomera. Had the mission been successful, EXPRESS would have been the first civilian space capsule to be launched in one country and recovered in another. The project involves the use of a Russian capsule, modified in Germany and launched in Japan using a Japanese rocket.

All is not lost for the future of Woomera, however, as it will be used as a landing site for a $2bn Japanese unmanned space shuttle programme which is to be developed over the next decade. Woomera will also be used as the centre for testing the shuttle’s automatic landing system from later this year.

Woomera was a major space site in the 1950s and ’60s, seeing more than 4000 rockets launched. The centre’s final launch was in October 1971 when the Prospero satellite was sent aloft. Prospero is still in orbit after nearly a quarter of a century.

India Buys Russian Carrier

The Indian Navy is to purchase the 37,000 tonne Russian Kiev class aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov (ex Baku) in a move which military observers suggest might have significant long-term implications for the strategic balance in the Asia-Pacific region.

India already operates two carriers, the elderly Vikrant and Viraat, both of them former Royal Navy ships (Hercules and Hermes) and flies a fleet of 23 BAe Sea Harrier FRS.51s from them. India is also starting design work on a class of 17,000 tonne ‘air defence’ ships.

The sale of the Gorshkov is part of a substantial long-term military cooperation programme between Russia and India which extends to 2003. Another part of this programme is the purchase of additional MiG-29s for the Indian Air Force. India’s Sea Harriers are now undergoing an upgrade and a navalised version of the indigenous Indian Light Combat Aircraft project is planned to be deployed at sea in about eight year’s time.

Meanwhile, rumours that India would help fund the final development phase of the Yakovlev Yak-141 Freestyle fighter though have been denied by Indian authorities. The final stages of development of the promising supersonic VTOL strike fighter were abandoned in 1993 following the demise of what was the Soviet Union.

Spain Buys More F/A-18s

Spain has confirmed earlier reports that it wishes to buy second-hand early model McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornets from the US Navy by sending a letter of request for 24 single-seat F/A-18As with an option on six more.

The aircraft are intended to fill the gap in Spain’s fighter force until the Eurofighter EF2000 enters service. The Hornets will be of a similar standard to the 72 new aircraft delivered to Spain between 1986 and 1990. Spain had already rejected an offer from the USAF to purchase second-hand F-16s as part of a programme intended to resell surplus aircraft. Although the USN does not have any surplus Hornets it has agreed to the sale due to Spain’s position as a NATO member and current operator of the aircraft.

Foreign Pilots For Raaf?

An ongoing series of resignations by pilots has forced the Federal Government to look at employing foreign pilots to fly the RAAF’s front-line combat aircraft.

Forty pilots, or about 6% of the RAAF’s strength, have resigned over the past few months leaving the operational readiness of the F/A-18 and F-111 fleets in doubt. Further resignations could cause serious problems and the situation has forced the government to look at alternatives, including using pilots from the UK and Canada as first choice, but also from the USA, Singapore and Malaysia. Other measures which have been taken include increasing basic training from 45 to 55 pilots a year, increasing annual instructor training rates from 24 to 36 and lifting fighter pilot training from 10 to 15 each year.

Most of the pilots are going to the airlines, prompting Minister for Defence Robert Ray to say: “The real question that should be raised in this country is not so much why people are going to these commercial airlines, but why these various commercial operators, Qantas in particular, do not recruit from the pool of available pilots outside the defence force”. The answer to that is also simple — the RAAF provides just about the best training there is!

Compensation Sought For Hornet Costs

The Federal Government is seeking compensation from General Electric following the engine manufacturer’s decision to reduce the component life of parts in the F/A-18 Hornet’s F404 engines.

Reduced component life means a significant increase in the cost of maintaining the engines over the service life of the aircraft, at this stage expected to be until 2015. According to the director of the RAAF’s Logistic Programme Management, Gp Capt John Pike, “As the RAAF purchased its F404 engines through US Navy Foreign Military Sales, its warranty claims arising from these component life reductions are processed and managed by the US Navy, which is also negotiating with General Electric on compensation. Any compensation awarded to the US Navy by General Electric will be passed onto the RAAF”.

The reduced component lives have resulted from the application of new service life prediction techniques by GE.

Vision Systems Acquires Lads Programme

Victorian company Vision Systems Ltd (VSL) has acquired BHP’s 50% stake in the Laser Airborne Depth Sounder System (LADS), until now jointly owned by the two organisations.

Developed for the RAN as a means of charting coastal waters using laser technology, LADS was originally developed by the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) and since 1988 has been managed by VSL and BHP. It is now in full-time operation by the RAN flying out of Cairns and has been ordered by the US Navy.

The Cirrus ST50 engineering prototype flew for first time on December 7 last year. The all new Pratt & Whitney PT6 powered five seat ST50 is being developed by Cirrus Designs in the US and Israviation in Israel. Cirrus is responsible for the ST50’s design while Israviation will manufacture the aircraft. The first production ST50 is due to be delivered in late 1996.

Belgian Upgrade For Indonesian F-5s

Belgian manufacturer and military aircraft refurbisher SABCA has been awarded a contract to upgrade 12 Indonesian Northrop F-5 fighters.

The $US40m contract covers eight single-seat F-5Es and four two-seat F-5Fs and involves the integration and installation of new avionics which will provide commonality with Indonesia’s F-16 fighters and Hawk 100/200 advanced trainer and light strike aircraft. The aircraft will be equipped with GEC-Marconi head-up display/weapons aiming computers, Litton LN-93 inertial navigation systems, GEC-Marconi Sky Guardian radar warning receivers, new air data computers, stores management systems, mission cameras and reconfigured cockpits incorporating hands-on-throttle-and-stick (HOTAS) controls.

The work is expected to take three years to complete and Indonesia’s remaining 10 F-5s will be upgraded in Indonesia using kits and technical assistance supplied by SABCA.

Rafale Exports Sought

Dassault intends to start export deliveries of its Rafale fighter in 1999 despite a current lack of customers and no strong prospects obvious.

A major problem facing Dassault with the aircraft is the French government’s ‘stretching’ of the programme for budgetary considerations. First deliveries of 234 for the air force and 86 for the navy have already been postponed by two years to 2000 and this is considered to have a detrimental effect on the Rafale’s export opportunities. On current estimates, the project cost of the Rafale works out to be the not insubstantial sum of about $A134m each, or about twice the cost of an F-15E Strike Eagle!