Big Mover

A Rapid Acquisition

Although a longer term requirement for a heavy lift transport – with both the C-17A Globemaster III and Airbus’s delayed A400M as possible candidates – was identified in 2003 under the Defence Materiel Organisation (DMO)’s Air 8000 project, at the time it was expected a mature, defined requirement would not be ready to proceed with until early next decade.

But the planets quickly started to align in 2003/04 with the ramping up of ADF operations in the Middle East; the “hardening of the Army” through the acquisition of new M1A1 Abrams main battle tanks, Tiger ARH helicopters, armoured ASLAVs and Bushmaster infantry vehicles, and a requirement for additional Chinook transport helicopters; a number of safety issues with chartered Russian

The C-17 was a the logical choice for its ability to lift a CH-47 Chinook, up to three Black Hawk, Seahawk or Tiger helicopters, four ASLAVs, or five Bushmasters.

”C-130H Hercules to be consolidated with Richmond’s 37SQN and its 12 C-130Js, and would move to Amberley in preparation for the arrival of its first C-17.

A US$80. 7m (A$85m) contract for Australia to join the global ‘virtual fleet’ C-17 sustainment program was awarded to Boeing on July 28 2006, and this was followed on July 31 with a US$780m (A$821m) Foreign Military Sales (FMS) contract for four C-17A Block 17 aircraft through the re-allocation of USAF Multi-Year Procurement II (MYPII) delivery positions.

The initial cadre of RAAF C-17 pilots and loadmasters departed Australia for Altus AFB in Oklahoma and Charleston AFB in May 2006 for conversion training to the C-17, led by then 36SQN commanding officer (CO) designate, WGCDR Linda Corbould. And in September, 48 maintenance technicians departed for training at McChord AFB in Washington State and Charleston AFB in South Carolina.

The first aircraft, A41-206 (USAF serial 06-0206), was rolled out of Boeing’s Long Beach, California, facility in November 28 2006, just nine months after the project was announced and less than five months after contract signature, an indication of the perceived urgency of the requirement, the willingness of the USAF to forego a delivery slot, and the fact that Boeing was already several aircraft ahead of schedule on the MYPII delivery contract.

Inside and out, the aircraft is identical to USAF Block 17 C-17s in every way, apart from its RAAF markings. The aircraft was delivered to Australia by WGCDR Corbould’s team on December 4, arriving to a welcome ceremony at Canberra Airport with then Prime Minister John Howard and Defence Minister Nelson, Chief of Air Force AIRMSHL Geoff Shepherd, Boeing and US consular officials in attendance.

A workup and intensive crew training period at Amberley followed 206’s delivery, with 36SQN settling into temporary accommodations there while awaiting a new headquarters building, maintenance and ramp facilities to be built.

The second C-17, A41-207 (USAF serial 07-0207), was handed over to the RAAF one month ahead of schedule on May 11 2007, and transported two new rigid hull inflatable boats for Army special forces on its delivery flight.

Aircraft three, A41-208 (USAF serial 07-0208), was handed over at Long Beach on December 18 2007, but remained in the US until February while it was fitted with wiring and equipment for its LAIRCM (large aircraft infrared countermeasures) system, arriving at Amberley on February 12. Aircraft four, A41-209 (USAF serial 07-0209), was handed over on January 18, also one month ahead of schedule, and it too remained in the US for its LAIRCM fit before arriving at Amberley on March 9.

Training & Development

With all four aircraft now in service, 36SQN is almost at its full complement of personnel as well. After achieving initial operating capability (IOC) in August last year, the unit is now working towards full operational capability (FOC) in mid 2011.

“We now have a complete fleet of aircraft, our maintenance and loadmaster team is 100 per cent established, and we’re almost there with our pilot numbers,” WGCDR Corbould told AA at Amberley. “We currently have 10 aircraft captains while our goal is 16, and we’re aiming to have three full crews per aircraft, so we should achieve our mature numbers by mid 2009. Our pilots have come from Caribou, Hercules, 34SQN’s VIP jets, and straight from 2FTS, and we even have ex Hornet and F-111 pilots. ” The initial RAAF crews were hosted and trained at Altus by USAF Major Lee Guthrie, and he was subsequently chosen to represent the USAF on a three year exchange posting with 36SQN.

“Because I helped train the initial six RAAF C-17 pilots and hosted the transition team when they were there at Altus, I was fortunate to be offered the first exchange posting with the RAAF, and arrived in October 2006 before going back to get the first aircraft that December,” said Maj Guthrie, a nearly 3000 hour C‑17 pilot who is described by junior pilots at 36SQN as ‘the C-17 guru’. “So I was the first captain here, plus our Mobile Training Team from Altus helped out at Amberley in the early days until sufficient RAAF training captains were in place.

“We started with the standard USAF procedures, and have refined these for the RAAF way of doing things – we’re still updating and changing a few things.

The great thing is we’ve done everything we’ve needed to and set out to do in the past 18 months. ” A USAF loadmaster is also on exchange with 36SQN in what is believed to be the USAF’s first ever non-commissioned officer (NCO) exchange posting.

In return, the RAAF has a pilot and a loadmaster – also the RAAF’s first ever NCO exchange posting – on exchange with the USAF’s 535th Airlift Squadron at Hickam AFB, Hawaii.

“We have 23 loadmasters on staff which is just over our establishment manning level,” senior 36SQN loadmaster, WOFF Ray Maconachie, said. “The last two are currently at Altus AFB undergoing training now. Most of our loadmasters are from C-130, but we also have one from 34SQN, two ex-Army guys, and a couple with 707 experience as well. ” “Our pilots and loadmasters do their initial conversion with the USAF at Altus AFB in Oklahoma as part ofour initial support package,” WGCDR Corbould detailed. “Pilots and loadmasters also currently go to Hickam AFB in Hawaii for their simulator work every six months, while our own sim is due to be delivered mid next year and be certified in time for us to run our first conversion course here in 2010.

The sim work includes emergency procedures, threat scenarios, and high altitude operations. ” When newly converted pilots returns from Altus, they are rated as a D‑Category (D-Cat) copilot which allows them to fly with a supervising captain. It then takes between one and two years to gain a captaincy, depending on previous flying experience and ability. “In 2008/09, we’re aiming to achieve about 4000 flying hours, and when we’re mature we should be flying around 5000 hours per year,” WGCDR Corbould said. “This works out to about 500 hours per year for new captains, and about 200 hours for squadron executives. ” Circuit work for pilot training is rotated as evenly as possible around the fleet depending on tasking, maintenance requirements, and availability.

Loadmasters meanwhile will be able to convert to the C-17 at Amberley once the simulator and cargo compartment trainer – essentially a full-scale cargo compartment mockup – are acquired.

“Loadmasters come off conversion as D-Cat rated, and generally go to C-Cat level within 12 months depending on tasking and previous experience,” said WOFF Maconachie. “The D-Cat guys fly with a supervisor on passenger and cargo tasks as part of a mentoring process, but can operate alone on training missions if required. Like pilots, loadmasters have currency issues as well, so it’s important they all get a fair share of the flying rotations. A loadmaster will typically fly between 400 and 500 hours per year. ” Like the squadron’s pilots and loadmasters, the maintainers also perform their initial training with the USAF, but at either Charleston AFB in South Carolina, or McChord AFB near Seattle in Washington State, both large C-17 bases with more than 50 aircraft at each.

Maintainers’ courses on the C-17’s P&W F117 engines are conducted at a separate facility in Mississippi.

In lieu of more permanent accommodation, the squadron’s headquarters has been set up in offices in 6SQN’s hangar at RAAF Amberley, while the maintenance team is housed in temporary buildings adjacent to the flightline near the base’s air movements terminal.

“Amberley has been very accommodating to us,” WGCDR Corbould said.

“Obviously they’ve been used to Monday to Friday F-111 ops in the past, but now we’re operating the C-17s seven days a week, so there’s been a bit of adjustment to base support agencies. ” “We have a new headquarters under construction – the foundation was laid in July and we should be in there by September next year,” WGCDR Corbould continued. “We’re going to share the new hangar with 33SQN – actually we’re using the hangar now for our 120 day maintenance station checks – while the new airlift warehouse should also be complete next September. ”

The Aircraft

“It’s a wonderful aircraft,” WGCDR Corbould enthused. “It just does everything so well, and the capability it offers is just so much more than anything we’ve operated previously. ” “You’d swear a maintainer had designed it,” the squadron’s senior engineering officer (SENGO), SQNLDR Jim Alexander said. “But then again, loadmasters will tell you a loadmaster had designed it, and pilots will probably tell you a pilot had designed it – it really is that good! It really is a quantum leap over anything we’ve ever operated before. ” Certainly, being able to uplift more than 70 tonnes and carry it twice as far as a C-130 is a massive step up, one that has given the RAAF a true strategic deployment capability.

“It’s made us a global air force – gives us a true global capability,” said WGCDR Bill Kourelakos, the CO of Air Lift Group’s Air Mobility Command Centre (AMCC). “We can now respond to an incident pretty much anywhere in the world at very short notice. ” AA gained a first hand view of C-17 flight operations by observing a pilot training sortie from the jump seat of ‘209’ in the Amberley terminal area.

During the 2. 7 hours aloft and despite some adverse weather in the Brisbane area, Maj Guthrie, the training captain for the flight, and three copilots who had just come off conversion, performed about 15 touch-and-goes at various approach angles, using short and long final approaches and both visual and instrument cues. The flight ended with a tight tacticalapproach and a extremely short tactical landing using full reverse thrust and maximum braking.

After landing, the loadmaster demonstrated the aircraft’s loading flexibility, the inbuilt loading winch, and the pop out omni-directional and uni-directional rollers in the cargo hold.

“The inbuilt winch in the forward hold floor allows pallets to be hauled aboard with a single loadmaster operation,” explained WOFF Maconachie.

“Configuring the aircraft is a dream – we can re-configure the floor in 10 minutes with just one person. The hold has omni-directional roller bearings on the ramp so palletised loads can be turned sideways or lengthways without the aid of heavy GSE (ground support equipment), and forward/rear bearings in the main hold floor. We can get 18 pallets in side-by-side in with no passenger seats, or nine pallets down the centre and 54 passengers on the flip-out side seats. ” 36SQN loadmasters typically construct their pallets so that they weigh between 4000 and 5000kg and are 2. 3 to 2. 5 metres tall, meaning once unloaded from the C-17 they can be loaded straight into C-130s for onward transport to forward areas without having to be broken down or reconfigured.

“The C-17’s flip rollers are amazing – it’s a real loadmaster’s aircraft,” said WGCDR Bob Drinkwater, CO of Richmond based Air Movements Training and Development Unit (AMTDU). “From our perspective, it’s very easy to work on. Not only is it faster than a C-130, it’s been designed for speed in unloading and loading. Obviously you really want to maximise the cost of operating such a large and expensive aircraft, and it allows you to do that. ”

“This capability has given us the opportunity to carry outsize cargo that the C-130 just can’t carry – up to 75 tonnes,”

said WOFF Maconachie. “We can carry multiple outsize items such as Black Hawks, Seahawks, a Chinook, or a couple of Pumas like we did in in Nargis Assist to Burma. It also gives Army greater flexibility when buying equipment, because they now know we have something that can carry it around for them. From a loadmaster’s point of view, there’s nothing better on the planet at this stage, noting that we haven’t seen the A400M yet. ” “The C-17 gives us a longer reach and a greater payload, and from the AMCC’s point of view, our job is to fill the aircraft and to maximize its use,” noted WGCDR Kourelakos. “It makes much more sense to use one C-17 on a task rather than take four C-130s. ” Maj Guthrie had previously flown USAF C-141 Starlifters before converting to the C-17. “It’s like going from the outhouse to the penthouse,” he remarked.

“You’ve got an electronic flight control system, a mission computer, fly-by-wire, and three crew members instead of seven or more – it’s just a completely different way of operating an aircraft. ” OPERATIONS The C-17s have already been tasked far and wide on ADF operations. They have been used to support F-111 and F/A-18 Exercise Red Flag deployments to Nevada and Alaska, carried US personnel and materiel around during the recent Pitch Black exercise in the Northern Territory, supported the RAAF AP-3C and Navy deployments to Hawaii for the recent RIMPAC exercises, took Navy Seahawks from NAS Nowra south of Sydney to Perth and back for exercises, brought Army’s third MRH 90 troop transport helicopter back from Marignane near Marseille in southern France, and are performing fortnightly missions to the Middle East in support of ADF and allied operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“Our Middle East runs are on a five day turnaround from departure to return, during which our crews fly about 37 hours,” said WGCDR Corbould. “We take cargo, spare parts and ammunition into the main hub and offload onto RAAF or coalition C-130s for onward distribution, and bring back damaged or due-for-service equipment. ” As previously mentioned, 36SQN’s C-17s have also participated in two large civil defence operations in Papua New Guinea and Burma in the past year.

For PNG Assist last November, a C-17 took 26 tonnes of supplies from Richmond to Port Moresby for onward distribution by C-130s, Caribou and Black Hawk helicopters. A C-17 also assisted once PNG Assist had wound down by bringing the Black Hawks back from Port Moresby to their home base of Townsville.

The unit was again called upon in early May to provide lift for Operation Nargis Assist in Burma, delivering 31 tonnes of emergency relief supplies from Defence and AusAID stores to Air Base Mingalardon in Rangoon, again mainly consisting of water purification tablets, blankets, tarpaulins and medical supplies.

A further government request to lift two Puma helicopters from South Africa to Thailand to assist in relief work in Burma followed about two weeks later.

“We get asked to do things from a variety of sources, such as ADF exercises, civil defence, missions etc,” said AMCC’s WGCDR Kourelakos. “We get a call asking what’s available, and we prioritise ALG’s assets accordingly, and for something we haven’t done before, our Air Load Coordination Cell will look at it.

“Nargis Assist was an ideal example.

We had to check what model of Puma it was, and then find out who may have carried one before. It all happened really quickly – we got definite plans to go on May 23, and the AMTDU team was en route that evening while the C-17 was diverted from a training task.

“We got some Puma carriage publications emailed to us from the UK while the AMTDU team and the C-17 were in transit to South Africa. The RAF had only ever carried one Puma at a time, so we had to adapt their publications to carry two. The C-17 arrived in South Africa on the afternoon of May 25, the helicopters were loaded on May 26, and the aircraft departed early on May 27, arriving in Bangkok late that night and unloading early the next morning.

Having the AMTDU guys there not only allowed us to clear the load but also allowed us to prepare and clear the load in minimal time.

The equipment restraints in the C-17’s cargo compartment are usually rated for movements of 3Gs forward, 1. 5Gs aft, 1. 5Gs lateral, 2Gs vertical (negative), and 4G vertical (positive). Whilst these are the same ratings as used in C-130, the restraints are scaled up in proportion to the size of the loads they are required to hold down.

“We usually get an item that needs clearing from our client service, and take two to three weeks of trials to clear it, but we obviously didn’t have this luxury with the Pumas,” said WGCDR Drinkwater. “So in this case, the owner company had to be happy with our carriage restraints etc that the helicopters wouldn’t be damaged. ” “We’re quite proud of being able to turn it on so quickly and so successfully,” said WGCDR Corbould. “It was a real credit to the squadron, to AMTDU and to AMCC. ” The squadron, along with AMTDU, has also been busy clearing and writing publications for various loads on the aircraft, ranging from small vehicles up to the Chinook and M1A1.

“We’ve been doing some new items lately, including the MRH 90 we brought back from France in June, and of course the Pumas we took to Bangkok,” said WGCDR Drinkwater. “The MRH 90 came back as an uncleared load, but current and future MRH and NH 90 customers will use our experience for the air carriage of their aircraft on C- 17s, and will have access to our published documentation. Likewise, we used the UK’s experience and publications to carry the Pumas. ” “We adapted the US publications for the carriage of the Chinook, but their processes and regulations are different to ours so we still had to certify our own loads,” he added. “There’s still a bit of assembly required at the other end, blades – rotor heads etc – but these components can all be carried inside the aircraft along with all the necessary people to put it back together and operate it.

“But there’s still a lot of conjecture on what people want the C-17 to do, so we won’t go out and just clear items unless people want it. If a request comes in, we assess its priority in conjunction with the requesting service and place it on our list accordingly. All pallet loads are already cleared – if an item can meet a pallet’s load requirements, then we don’t need to get involved. We publish a set of guidelines for the loadmasters and they work off these for palletised loads. ”

Support

Membership of the Boeing and USAF Globemaster III Sustainment Partnership (GSP) means Boeing will manage some of the spare parts inventory for the RAAF’s fleet and will be responsible for performing heavy depot level maintenance on the aircraft. The RAAF will maintain responsibility for all flight line maintenance including mandatory home station checks (HSC).

“The HSC is done every 120 days,” explained 36SQN SENGO SQNLDR Jim Alexander. “We perform a list of regular and irregular inspections on the aircraft, as well as a lube check and change the filters. There are six different HSCs, one to six, and each takes the same amount of hours to complete. Some inspections will be done every HSC, whereas others are done every second, third, or every sixth check. ” The RAAF’s C-17s will be programmed to go through a deep maintenance cycle with Boeing in the US sometime in a two year window, ranging from every three to five years, thus allowing 36SQN to separate each aircraft’s deep maintenance cycles.

There is an ongoing block upgrade program of which the RAAF is also a member. Known as the Global Reach Improvement Project (GRIP), this program will see RAAF C-17s receive the latest common configuration block upgrades as they are released for USAF and other customer C-17s. Most of these future upgrades are likely to be software enhancements, although there have been some physical changes made in the latest Block 17 build run of aircraft (like the RAAF’s four aircraft) that are now being retrofitted to older Block 16 and earlier USAF and RAF C-17s under GRIP. These include new weather radars, enhanced communications equipment, redesigned stabiliser struts, a new formation flight system and combat lighting, and a new on-board inert gas generating system which pumps inert nitrogen gas into the aircraft’s fuel tanks as they empty.

“From a maintenance perspective, it’s an easy aircraft to work on,” said SQNLDR Alexander. “The aircraft is very reliable – the things we change most are tyres, and even then the aircraft can jack itself up so as to ‘cock a leg’ for us to change it without needing additional GSE. The aircraft is largely computer driven which makes things easier too. Just about everything is built in, so you don’t have to carry heaps of GSE around. I guess the only hard thing really is that everything is supersized and sometimes high up off the ground, but even then there’s a built-in restraint system on the top of the aircraft – so they’ve even thought about OH&S when they were designing it. ” “Our availability is as expected,” noted WGCDR Corbould. “In fact, in the past year our maintenance guys have increased their knowledge base considerably, to the point where the RAAF has become the global subject matter experts on some issues. ” Boeing supports the aircraft with the positioning of a team of field service representatives on site at Amberley. “They work alongside our maintenance team every day and are a go-between between us and Boeing,” WGCDR Corbould said.

“It’s part of what we signed up for as a part of the global ‘virtual fleet’, and he’s considered a part of 36SQN. ” The DMO has also established a new Heavy Airlift Systems Project Office (HALSPO) at Amberley to manage the contracting and corporate aspects of through-life support and sustainment for not only the C-17, but also for the new KC-30 tankers expected to start entering service with 33SQN at Amberley next year.

Towards Foc

The squadron’s big focus remains achieving FOC in mid 2011.

“There is still some AME (aero medical evacuation) equipment and fittings to come as well, and we’ll need to clear some special forces loads and will be working up to JPADS (Joint Precision Airdrop System) soon too, so a lot of role expansion activities are still occurring,” WGCDR Corbould said of 36SQN’s work still to be done.

Currently cleared for limited use on RAAF C-130s, the JPADS applies a GPS airborne guidance unit and small motors driving movable risers to a parasail type canopy to airdropped loads, thus enabling them to be dropped within three metres of their intended landing position from altitude and without having to directly overfly a drop zone.

“It (FOC) is still a couple of years off yet,” said WGCDR Corbould. “Early to mid 2011 is when all the elements should come into play including the headquarters, the sim, the new air movements facilities at Townsville, Darwin, Edinburgh and Pearce etc. ” When all the elements do come together, it’s clear the RAAF airlift capabilities will have reached a higher plane.