Fincastle ’08

Fincastle has been held since 1961, but the competition has been able to evolve as the role of maritime patrol aircraft has changed over time to incorporate intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions. As the need for subhunting has declined, maritime patrol aircraft have more and more come to be used for overland ISR missions where they fly at high altitude and crews monitor the movements of troops and vehicles on the ground to provide ground commanders with real-time surveillance information. Since 2006, Exercise Fincastle has incorporated ISR missions, with this year’s competition featuring one week of ISR flying and one week of traditional ASW missions.

Fincastle 2008 was hosted by 19 Wing Comox, located on Vancouver Island on Canada’s west coast, over April 28 to May 18.

The participants brought their best crews and aircraft to Fincastle with the Royal Air Force represented by 201 Squadron flying a Nimrod MR. 2, Crew 6 from 10 Squadron RAAF flying an AP-3C Orion, a 5 Squadron RNZAF crew in their P-3K Orion, and the home nation represented by a team from the Canadian Forces’ Air Command’s 407 ‘Demons’ Squadron flying the CP-140 Aurora.

The ISR missions were completed during the first week of the competition by participating in Exercise Maple Guardian. Each crew flew three flights over the Canadian Maneuver Training Center in Wainwright, Alberta, supporting the next battle group of Canadian troops that were due to deploy to Afghanistan in September.

The ASW missions were conducted at the Canadian Forces’s Maritime Experimental Testing Range (CFMETR) at Nanoose Bay.

Each team would fly one familiarisation flight followed by a competition flight later in the week.

Both the Australian and British crews had the advantage of operational ISR flying experience in the Middle East, with the RAAF having an AP-3C detachment of two aircraft and around 170 personnel in the Arabian Gulf since 2003 under Operations Catalyst and Slipper. The RAF meanwhile uses Nimrod MR. 2s to support British operations in Afghanistan (Operation Herrick) and Iraq (Operation Telic). The operational ISR experience of the RAF and RAAF crews meant all four nations could benefit from those experiences.

Flying A Raaf Isr Mission

To gain a better understanding of the ISR role, your correspondent was able to observe an eight hour ISR mission in the AP-3C Orion, recognised as the most advanced Orion variant in the world.

Not surprisingly the mission brief was classified, but afterwards I was introduced to 10SQN CO Wing Commander Kevin Murray and Squadron Leader Wayne Grehmn.

WgCdr Murray noted that our flight was believed to be the first open to the media and was enthusiastic to demonstrate what the AP‑3C was capable of. “The AP-3C is the most capable Orion here today and it is combat proven, we think you will be impressed by its capability,” he remarked.

Part of the AP-3C’s impressive capabilities have a Canadian link, Sqn Ldr Grehmn pointed out. The AP-3C’s Adaptive Image Management System, or AIMS, is a moving map that is displayed on laptops at the individual stations in the aircraft, where the flightpath and mission information is displayed and integrated into the other systems on the aircraft. The AIMS was developed by a small company on the eastern coast of Canada, and each day a patch can be downloaded from the manufacturer and installed, enabling the crew to stay current of any changes to the mission or area of operations.

“AIMS is one of the systems that makes our plane so effective, it is fully integrated into our other software which decreases workload on the crew,” said SQNLDR Grehmn.

For our mission we had a suitably Australian callsign, ‘Fosters 24’, with a transit of a little over one hour from Comox to Wainwright.

Once on station we were updated via radio with events of the “war” and then relieved ‘Demon 34’, a CP‑140 Aurora that had been performing ISR prior to our arrival. ‘Snapshot’ would be the ground commander who would be tasking us during our six hour mission over the simulated battlefield.

Wainwright represented an area in the Middle East, populated by camps and small villages throughout the range as well as trucks, 4WDs, buildings, weapons and people located in these predetermined areas of interest. Also supporting the troops were contractor operated Dassault/Dornier Alpha Jets from Top Aces performing close air support, Canadian Forces Sagem CU-161 Sperwer UAVs and several Bell CH-146 Griffon helicopters transporting soldiers and equipment. All this provided a similar environment to operational theatres in the Middle East.

The previous days of the exercise had involved recon and information gathering which led into today’s event that would involve the coalition troops initiating an assault on suspected insurgents, IED (improvised explosive device) cells and the clearing of IEDs on a supply route.

The AP-3C operates with a crew of 12 for either the ASW or ISR mission consisting of pilot, copilot and flight engineer up front and nine sensor operators in the back. Directly behind the cockpit sits the navigator communications (navcom) and the tactical coordinator officers (tacco). The navcom operates the radios, communicates with the tower as well as the commanders on the ground, and navigates the plane’s course during flight. The tacco is responsible for the tactical aspects of the mission and works closely with the pilots and navcom. He will inform the crew of the next target and relay any tactical information that is relevant during the mission, such as the type of vehicle or weapon that is projected on their large monitors from the turret mounted FLIR.

The Star Safire II FLIR housed under the AP-3C’s nose is deployed as needed. Operated by the electro-optical operator or EO, he hasthe ability to manoeuvre the camera 360 degrees at the subject of interest with a handheld controller that looks very similar to a Playstation game pad. Neither the altitude we were flying nor the magnification level of the FLIR can be disclosed, but I can say that it was quite easy to see buildings, trucks, weapons and people below us. Processing all the images displayed by the FLIR was the job of sensor operator 1. He would catalogue all photos taken by the FLIR while sensor operator 3 would operate the radar as per normal. Two other crew members acted as spotters using windows throughout the aircraft to visually identify objects with binoculars and document them with digital SLR cameras. Another sensor operator was on board but I was restricted from photographing or discussing his function.

Directing this team and filtering the incoming images is the responsibility of the senior employment manager, or SEM. He is the most experienced operator on the team and directs the crew on the necessary information needed to get the images back to the commander on the ground. This in turn makes the tacco’s role easier as the most relevant pictures that are needed at the present task are displayed to him.

The crew works together to identify objects, moving or static, and closely identify and examine everything the FLIR produces on their individual screens. We would fly continuous circuits over each hot spot and whether it was a change in orientation of parked trucks or a large gun from one circuit to the next, the crew would identify the change and record and relay the info back to ‘Snapshot’. When the desired image is acquired it is sent via satellite to the soldier on the ground.

During the mission we were never without a tasking, the ground forces relying on the AP-3C throughout the six hours we were on station.

Week Two – Asw Phase

The ASW missions in the second week of the competition involved just a short 10 minute transit from Comox to the CFMETR range. The instrumented CFMETR is capable of tracking underwater, surface, and air targets including torpedoes, submarines, surface vessels, and aircraft. These tracked objects are recorded and displayed in real-time at an operations centre located on nearby Winchelsea Island.

The ASW teams were allocated 2. 5 hours to search, localise and attack a MK-30 mod 2 ASW Advanced Target Training System (ATS), an eight metre long, torpedo-shaped vehicle able to mimic the sounds and movements of a variety of submarines. Self-propelled, it follows a pre-set pattern, allowing aircraft to track it and launch attacks against it with practice torpedoes.

Each team flew one familiarisation flight prior to the competition flight, giving them a chance to familiarise themselves with the small rectangular area of the CFMETR. Your writer was invited to fly with the Canadian CP-140 crew during their familiarisation flight.

The Lockheed CP-140 Aurora has been in service since 1980, and with a modernised mission suite still a few years away, the AP-3C clearly has the technological advantage.

“Technologically it’s 1980 versus 2008, and there are few comparisons,” said 407 Squadron’s Major Brian Erickson.

“But it all comes down to the quality of the crew, and that means we’re still very much in this competition. ” CFMETR is located in the Strait of Georgia, dividing the mainland of British Columbia from Vancouver Island, the area near the range being scattered with pleasure boats, passenger ferries and commercial ships. Using the Aurora’s Wescam MX 20 FLIR, the EO operator identified all boats near the range to provide situational awareness of the area.

As soon as all the traffic on the water was documented and fed into the aircraft’s mission system, it was time to start the sub hunting. The Aurora released a MK-39 Expendable Mobile ASW Training Target (EMATT), which would simulate the submarine for the mission. (To ensure no unfair advantages the training flight would use the MK-39 and not the larger and more capable MK-30 mod 2 ATS that was used for the competition flight.

Once the EMATT was in the water, the Aurora sensor operators got to work.

The first phase of ASW is the search.

Dropping sonobuoys that are located in the belly of the Aurora, the tactical navigator (tacnav), Major Erickson, would direct the airborne electronic sensor operators (AESOPS) to deploy the buoys into the water. Using specific search patterns, the sonobouys can vary from a straight line in the water where the sub could possibly pass through, to a distribution field where the sonobuoys are released in a specific pattern.

Based on intelligence from the mission brief, sonobuoys can be programmed to sink to a certain depth where the crew believes the sub could be operating.

The acoustic sensor operator translates the return signals from the sonobuoys, and working with the TACNAV creates a picture of where the sub may be located.

With this information, Maj Erickson starts to plot the possible direction of the travelling sub. The TACNAV will continue plotting positions of the next sonobuoy to be released on his screen, this new drop location displayed to the pilots’ screen in the cockpit, the pilots then performing tight turning manoeuvres to position the Aurora over the waypoint as quickly as possible.

The Aurora now starts flying tracking patterns on the sub. The AESOPS are kept busy loading sonobuoys into the tubes located in the armament station, the pilots making tight 60 degree turns.

Once the crew has a good position on the sub, the attack pattern is performed. This pattern can involve more than one pass as it may require more than one torpedo to destroy the submarine. We would perform attack and re-attack passes, four in total.

“Two runs were good hits while the other two were still within the weapons envelope,” Major Erickson said.

“We had some good stuff today but there were a few technical problems in the back of the plane,” Maj Erickson said during the flight back to Comox. “We will bring these up in briefing and have them corrected by our competition flight. ” As for his prediction who will win Fincastle, “We’ve worked really hard to prepare for this,” he continues, “the other countries here have some pretty amazing equipment, but success in the competition is all about integrating into the maritime environment, reacting to the situation and being able to put a weapon accurately on target. That’s something we’re pretty good at. ”

And the Winner Is. . . .

Once the results had been tallied at the end of the competition, not much had changed since the last Fincastle exercise in 2006 – the RAF had again demonstrated its continuing supremacy in the ASW and ISR missions. It was the RAF’s 18th Fincastle victory (Australia last won Fincastle in 2003, courtesy of 10 Squadron’s Crew 5).

Nonetheless, for the first time in 11 years the RAAF could lay claim to the Lockheed Martin Maintenance Trophy.

But perhaps the real winner was the British Columbia Lions Charity for Children with Disabilities, with Fincastle crews able to raise C$4500 in a charity challenge to see which national team of 20 could tow a CP-140 over 10 metres the fastest.

“This was a great event, for a great cause,” said 19 Wing Commander Colonel Fred Bigelow. “We raised money for an important charity while laying aside the stress of competition to get to know our comrades in arms a bit better. ” It is clear that the Fincastle competition exercise itself is a great event too, providing a great training outcome and invaluable forum for sharing experiences in the precise arts of ASW and ISR.