Low hanging fruit?

In 1997 Australia ordered 11 Kaman SH-2G(A) Super Seasprites (see title pic) with the expectation the helicopters would be delivered by 2001 to equip the RAN’s Anzac class frigates with anti-surface (ASuW) and anti-submarine warfare (ASW) capabilities.

The helicopters are all upgraded former US Navy (USN) SH-2F airframes fitted with new sensors and the Litton (now Northrop Grumman) Integrated Tactical Avionics System (ITAS) allowing for two crew operation (pilot and observer).

A remediation program proposed by Kaman last year would see these aircraft enter service in 2011 at the earliest, and not achieve a full operational capability until 2014.

“Many are saying it should be abandoned,” Fitzgibbon said during an ABC TV interview on February 18.

Fitzgibbon may well soon be picking off the low hanging fruit from the tree of troubled defence projects, scrapping the Seasprite program altogether and blaming the previous Howard government for a bad decision to procure the Seasprites in the first place.

“This is a very, very tough decision for the new government.

It’s a nasty piece of work to inherit from the former government,” said Fitzgibbon.

In recent years Navy’s Seahawks have been worked twice as hard as originally anticipated due to the Seasprite’s woes, a high operational tempo in the Persian Gulf, and low availability rates of the Sea Kings.

A Seahawk mid-life upgrade program is scheduled, but this may cost almost as much as buying new aircraft, then there is issue of the capability drop while Seahawks are taken off line for months at a time to undergo the upgrade.

A decision on whether to perform a mid-life upgradeor replace the Seahawks and Seasprites with a single type at the same time is due this sometime this year.

Australian Aviation understands that Defence approached Sikorsky and Eurocopter in mid January to prepare proposals for up to 27 helicopters to replace Navy’s Seasprites plus its 16 S-70B-2 Seahawks under Phase 8 of the Defence Materiel Organisation’s Air 9000 project.

Likely candidates on offer from Sikorsky to replace Seasprite and Seahawk are its proven MH-60R ‘Romeo’ ASW/ASuW helicopter.

Additionally Sikorsky’s MH-60S ‘Sierra’ transport helicopter could be acquired to replace the Navy’s Sea Kings, allowing the MRH 90s to be handed over to Army bolstering its own medium lift capabilities and leaving Navy with an all Sikorsky fleet.

During a teleconference with AA from the Singapore Airshow, Sikorsky’s vice president navy programs, Lenny Wengler, would not be drawn on anything specific in relation to a proposal regarding the replacement Australia’s naval helicopters, however said “the proven MH-60 Romeo and Sierra would fit very nicely into the operational capabilities the RAN are looking for and already have. ” The MH-60R is fitted with Lockheed Martin’s ‘common cockpit’ avionics suite (common to the Sierra) and is equipped with a dipping airborne low frequency sonar (ALFS), FLIR, 360 degree radar with ISAR capability, and a full ESM suite making it capable of the full range of ASW and ASuW tasks.

The MH-60R is equipped to launch Lockheed Martin’s Hellfire II missile (common with Army’s new Tiger ARH). The USN is also looking at a long range missile capability for the Romeo, but has yet to establish a program.

The MH-60S looks like a grey painted Black Hawk but its cabin is slightly larger and it has some structural differences. It is essentially a combination of the US Army’s UH-60L and the maritime systems of the Seahawk.

“You’re now taking a cabin with dual sliding doors and the 12 troop capability with the blade and tail folding capabilities allowing for ship borne operations,” said Wengler. “The Sierra does give the multi mission capability for VERTREP, the armed helicopter capability and the organic AMCM (airborne mine countermeasures) capability. ” Under a foreign military sale (FMS) with the USN Australia could buy the helicopters off-the-shelf within a matter of years subject to availability and negotiations with the USN.

A purchase would also align Australia with all of the USN’s communications, navigation and mission systems block upgrades that have already been planned to be developed over time.

The MH-60 Romeo and Sierra are currently in full rate production. “We have production rates of two per month for the Sierra and are shooting for roughly two per month for the Romeo and increasing that in 2009 to three per month,” said Wengler.

“There is more capacity in the Romeo production lines to increase the rate of aircraft per month so it would be up to the US Navy as to how soon aircraft could be made available for an FMS. ” Sikorsky has already delivered 118 of the 271 MH‑60Ss required by the USN and 15 of 298 MH‑60Rs.

First deployment of the MH-60R is slated for early 2009 with HSM-71 squadron. Currently HSM-41 squadron at San Diego is using the Romeo for operational training.

Another option from the Sikorsky stable is the cheaper export variant of the Seahawk, the S-70BA much improved version of the S-70B-2 which the RAN has been operating since 1988, the current S-70B .

The S-70B’s airframe and systems are essentially common to the MH-60R, but it does feature a Rockwell Collins avionics suite (based on its US Army Common Avionics Architecture Suite fitted to the UH-60L and CH-47F) meaning it would be unable to take advantage of planned USN block upgrades to the MH-60R.

The S-70B can be boughtdirectly from Sikorsky by direct commercial sale making it cheaper than the Romeo due to the administrative costs associated with buying through an FMS.

The S-70B is currently in production at a rate of one per month for the next two years, with Singapore a recent customer (buying six for its La Fayette class frigates).

For the RAN requirement Sikorsky faces stiff competition from Eurocopter’s NFH90 naval variant of the NH90/MRH 90 transport now entering ADF service.

It features an all-composite fuselage, long range, large cabin and the ability to perform ASW/ASuW, utility, troop transport, SAR and special operations missions from a single airframe type.

Despite having the advantage of incumbency with the MRH 90, Eurocopter, which was not willing at this stage to discuss its Air 9000 Phase 8 proposals, told AA in a statement that it is progressing well with the NH90 NFH program in Europe.

Currently four NFH90s are conducting flight trials for qualification with the Italian, French, Norwegian and Dutch navies.

Deliveries of the first NFH90 in Europe are expected to commence from mid 2009 firstly to Italy followed by France, the Netherlands and Norway.

The pace of deliveries and date of entry into service will be dependant on each country’s acceptance processes.

However, should the Australian government announce within coming months it is scrapping the Seasprite once and for, and not to proceed with the Seahawk upgrade, then Eurocopter may not be able to offer an operational naval NFH90 capability in the relatively short timeframe due to program delays in Europe.

The NFH did encounter technical difficulties with its radar and mission system at the end of 2006. Eurocopter developed plans to resolve each problem and a qualification plan was agreed on while informing its customers of the situation and evolution of the program.

However, despite the delays and the infancy of the NFH90 program, Eurocopter says it is confident it could meet Australian delivery requirements.

Not surprisingly Sikorsky believes it has a key advantage with its MH-60R and MH-60S having already completed operational testing and certification, making them an off-the-shelf “ready to fire and deliver” option.

“A big advantage is you’re in production, you’re through all the operational testing, you have the planned block upgrades in place and you have the support of the US Navy for the product for the next 25 to 30 years. So I think that is a pretty good competitive advantage,” said Wengler.

But the risk of program delays aside, the acquisition of the NFH90 could generate important training and maintenance savings for the ADF from commonality with the MRH 90, while keeping true to the intent of the overall Air 9000 plan of rationalising helicopter platform types in ADF service.

Should the NFH90 be selected it would be assembled by Australian Aerospace, Eurocopter’s Australian subsidiary, at Brisbane Airport’s facility on the current MRH 90 assembly line.

Eurocopter also notes from an industry perspective the industrial benefits already offered by Australian Aerospace’s MRH 90 production capability, which it says would continue to develop during the production and support of the NFH90 in Australia.

Seasprite promised the Navy a great capability, but even if Defence’s presses ahead with it, it is unlikely to fire a shot in anger for at least another six years. In the meantime Navy would continued to be starved of naval aviation capabilities it deserves and the Seahawks will continue to be worked to the bone.

For now Seasprite is proving one bad apple – a tempting target for a new government to easily pluck from the defence projects tree.