Wedgetail

And Deeble was keen to dismiss claims in recent media reports that the Commonwealth had accepted a lesser capability in order to get the aircraft delivered. “The one key point is that, from the most recent press reporting that we’ve agreed to a lesser capability – that’s not true!” he emphasised. “That’s not our intent, and clearly what we’ll be looking at through OT (Operational Test) and the OUD (Operational Utility Demonstration) is exactly where we are and whether that would give us a path forward that is acceptable to the Commonwealth. So we are not compromising on any capability at this time. I really want to get to the point that I understand what we’re getting, what its operational utility is, and what the technical performance needs to be to meet that operational requirement.”

“I can confirm today that Boeing has not sought – or the Commonwealth agreed to – any change in the contract’s terms in advance of the operational evaluation program and independent review,” added Parliamentary Secretary for Defence Procurement, Greg Combet in a February 18 speech. “While any comment on the outcomes of that test and evaluation program is premature, I can say that all parties involved are highly committed to delivering a world class capability to the RAAF.”

“I wouldn’t want to underestimate that we’ve got risk as we move forward – we’re still a very technically challenging program,”

And speculation that Boeing may ‘walk away’ or ‘cut and run’ from the project also appears to be somewhat excessive and highly unlikely.
“Clearly there are implications for Boeing for the rest of the product line,” AVM Deeble explained. “Turkey is expecting deliveries in April 2010, and Korea is expecting airplanes in April 2011. Interestingly, other countries are also looking at down-selecting an AEW&C capability in the near future, and India, already having signed up to the (737-800-based) P-8I (Maritime Multi-mission Aircraft – MMA) has also expressed an interest in AEW&C, so you can see that the interest is growing in the capability as we get close to the end. Boeing has done pretty well in starting a family of 737 variants – this is the first and the MMA will continue that stable, and you can see them positioning themselves well to provide a very cost-effective fleet mix for countries like Australia.”

“In November last year there was a summit held in Canberra where we discussed how we are going to move things forward,” Mr Combet said. “Following those discussions, Boeing and the Commonwealth agreed to enter into a modified test and evaluation program for the Wedgetail Aircraft, to be completed by the middle of this year. This program will determine if the aircraft system meets the specifications and how well it will perform operationally.”

“We came to a point in November last year where we had to sit down with Boeing and say, ‘how are we going to go?’ because we had indications that there would be shortfalls in performance, and we needed to establish how these were going to be met and whether or not we could enter into test,” AVM Deeble continued. “Boeing committed at that time to a November 2009 delivery of the first two aircraft which they are proposing will be minus the ESM and EWSP capability because there are still some issues with those systems. Then they will deliver the ‘full up round’ in terms of capability from the March 2010 timeframe. While that is a slip again from where we had originally planned, basically it represents an agreed path forward where we’re trying to support them to the maximum amount possible.”

Part of the modified program has seen leading scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Lincoln Laboratories, one of the world’s leading organisations in the fields of radar design and performance and supported by the DSTO, engaged to help establish a baseline from which to build capability targets for the system. “Lincoln Labs will look at any potential shortfalls in capability to assess whether or not they can be resolved and how they can be resolved, and to also help us to understand what the path forward might be for any of those residual problems,” explained AVM Deeble. “We haven’t dictated exactly how they’re doing that because they are the experts in the field. They are very highly regarded in the US, and they are associated with one of the most prestigious universities or any organisations in the US with a very strong technical background. They’ve been engaged by us, but because they are a US government funded organisation, we’ve done this through a FMS (Foreign Military Sales) agreement through (the USAF’s) Electronic Systems Center, and effectively they subcontract through them.”

“The best possible outcome for me is that they say this system is one of the best in world – that would be fantastic,” he added. “I’m not sure that’s going to happen, but I’m relying on them to give me independent advice on where the system is today, what issues it has, and whether or not, or how those issues can be resolved. I think they’re going to tell us that there is some significant capability here, and that it has significant potential. I also believe they are likely to identify a number of issues, but I would be optimistic that they are not insurmountable. In doing that review we are working very closely with Boeing and Northrop Grumman – it is essential that we give the companies an opportunity to present their case, and similarly we will provide our view of where we think we are, and I’m relying on Lincoln Labs to be truly independent of all those stakeholders and to provide us with an independent review.”

Aircraft number 3, the first Wedgetail to be modified by Boeing at Amberley last year and currently based in Seattle in the US with the test program, is scheduled to return to Australia in April of this year to conduct an OUD assessment in conjunction with Exercise Arnhem Thunder in the Northern Territory. The aircraft will be flown in conjunction with other ADF airborne and ground based capabilities including RAAF F/A-18 Hornets recently modified with Link-16 datalinks and other communications and situational awareness enhancements under Phase 2.2 of the Air 5376 Hornet Upgrade program (HUG). The exercise will help to characterise the system, in particular the radar, in a realistic environment and using operationally representative scenarios.

Following the completion of the Lincoln Labs review and the OT test in Australia, the Wedgetail program will then undergo a major executive review in mid 2009 by Ministers Fitzgibbon and Combet, the Chief of Air Force and other senior RAAF and ADF officials, and program executives. “Mid year will be a very key assessment,” AVM Deeble explained. “We will have T&E under our belt, we would have had the OUD in Australia, and we will have the MIT Lincoln Labs report, and that’ll give the executives the opportunity to look at the path forward.”

In the meantime, the recently completed Aircraft 4 will be on static display at March’s Avalon Air Show. It and Aircraft 5 were recently rolled out of Boeing’s Amberley facility and painted by TAE at Richmond. The sixth and final aircraft is currently being modified at Amberley and is due to receive its radar, which was used by Northrop Grumman on its test range, by mid year after that system has been refurbished. “I think the production at Amberley is progressing very well,” AVM Deeble said. “The quality of the aircraft, the low number of ‘squawks’ we’re getting before they commence their check flights is really quite amazing. Boeing in the US has commented on the quality of our manufacturing capability at Boeing Defence Australia at Amberley, so that’s a great thing.”

Deeble emphasised that he enjoys a strong relationship with his Boeing counterparts, and that the channels of communication remain open and constructive. “I think it’s fundamentally important that I don’t do anything without Boeing being there and being engaged,” he said. “The reality is that we often sit around the table with Boeing and with Northrop Grumman, and while I will talk directly to Northrop in those meetings, I will always look to Boeing to ensure Northrop meets their contractual obligations. Equally true, we sit around with BAE working out the ESM and EWSP and some of the ground support segment issues, but I rely on Boeing being the prime contactor and systems integrator to meet their obligations and to ensure their sub-contractors do as well.”

Interestingly, AVM Deeble has also been sowing the seeds for the potential establishment of an AEW&C joint users group in conjunction with Turkey and South Korea in an effort to reduce the costs of development and ownership of the Wedgetail. “The benefits of that are for us to pool our resources differently, and to leverage our customer power with Boeing and Northrop Grumman,” he explained. “We can share non-recurring engineering, cost of ownership issues, and share some infrastructure. For example, why would you have three separate support facilities within Northrop Grumman for the radar? So we’re looking at how we can get a single support facility, how we do software development in the future taking into account the different country imperatives, and I think there’s some significant savings to be made. I think the talks have been pretty fruitful, and the economic crisis will drive a lot more of that thinking.”

When asked what lessons he had learned from the program that he and the DMO would take forward onto future capability acquisitions, AVM Deeble was quite open and pragmatic. “Up front, you need to understand what it takes to be a first customer of the first of type,” he offered. “Although people will talk about off-the-shelf outcomes, there are times where a nation needs to take a decision to be at that cutting edge. And we are at the cutting edge, there’s no doubt in my mind, but I think it will be worth it. I come out of the F-111 community and I look to capabilities that are at the similar ilk that are pushing the edge. The F-111 was one of them – it took a lot of criticism up front but ended up being a capability that everyone’s proud of. And when the F-111 goes out of service in 2010 I’ll be shedding a tear knowing that it’s one of the best investments Australia ever made. We took a chance on the F-111, and I think Wedgetail will fall definitely into that space.”

“If I was to compare Wedgetail to the evolution of the (Boeing 707-based) E-3 (AWACS), then I think we are well within the timeline that system evolved in through the 1970s from the drawing board to entering operational service. The MESA is the first of type, it doesn’t exist on any other platform, and one of the issues is that it has effectively been prototyped on our airframe rather than the generally accepted process of an SDD (System Development & Design) phase where you do that development up front before you go into production. So, running concurrent development and production programs, the way we did, is clearly how you’d not want to do business. The iterations to the aircraft causes you all sorts of problems in production, for example when we had to modify the top hat radar. So getting a couple of aircraft up front and doing some reasonable prototyping and developmental T&E to get to the point where you know the system is ready to go into production, being able to determine the performance, getting the stability of the system squared away, and then going into a more rapid production phase is I think where you would rather be.”

“Running concurrent development and production programs, the way we did, is clearly how you’d not want to do business.”

“This will remain a hard program until the day I have aircraft sitting on the tarmac in Williamtown, but my personal view is we’re going to be very proud of the AEW&C and the fact that we made the decision to introduce this cutting edge capability into ADF service.”