78WG

Structure & Training

The RAAF’s 78WG is an element of the Williamtown-Headquartered Air Combat Group (ACG) Force Element Group (FEG), and comprises the aforementioned two flying squadrons of Hawks as well as 278SQN which is responsible for conducting all Hawk and Hornet technical training for the RAAF.

“The trainees graduate from 2FTS and go to 79SQN in Pearce,” explained GPCAPT Clements. “79SQN takes pilots from the PC-9 who we believe are now candidates to go to fast jets, and convert them to Hawk as Phase One and Two of the Introductory Fighter Course (IFC). Those pilots who are successful in the transition to hawk are then sent to 76SQN at Williamtown to complete the tactical element of IFC in Phases Three to Five.”

Students currently spend about 55 hours with 79SQN learning to fly the Hawk (General Flying, Instrument Flying, Navigation and Formation)and then about the same amount of time with 76SQN learning the basics of Air Combat, that is how to become a fighter pilot. Those that pass IFC then go to 2OCU for conversion to the Hornet, or from 2011, to 6SQN to convert to the Super Hornet.

“At the moment it’s about 50/50 in hours, but we’ve just done a curriculum review and we’re trying to better align with the developing requirements in Hornets and Super Hornets,” GPCAPT Clements added. “Air Combat in Hornets and Super Hornets are rapidly heading down the path where IF and night flying are becoming more important, With NVGs, JHMCS, Link 16, JDAM and JASSM the emphasis, Certain skills are increasing requiring us to tweak our course.. Another area we need to focus is captaincy and leadership. By the time a pilot graduates from IFC they have spent a lot of time in dual, and in terms of decision making in a single seat jet there is no substitute for experience on your own.”

Consequently, the new curriculum will place a greater emphasis on flying solo, at night and in IF conditions, albeit within the constraints of the various environmental impact studies that have been conducted around the two main bases at Pearce and Williamtown.

“We’re having a fresh eyes look at the courses and will implement it as a new curriculum early next year. We also realised that we were teaching some things which were nice to have at this stage of the training, but weren’t really essential. It’s more of an adjustment of what we teach and how we teach, so we can focus in tighter on the skills required to do well in a fighter.

“Obviously as the Super Hornet comes on board, we will very much want to know whether 82WG are getting what they want from a pilot as well. Our initial thought was the pilot you generate for the ‘classic’ will also do well in the Super, and at the moment our philosophy is our front seat is interchangeable from classic to Super – we can send them to either. So for now we’ll train to the same standard, but what we may find is that the Super guys might need a little bit more of this, and a little less of that, and then we can look at the course and make adjustments or bridge that if necessary.”

And with the switch from F-111s to Super Hornets, a greater emphasis will be placed on training ACOs for the Super Hornet rear seats, a task which is being undertaken by 76SQN in a new ‘C’ Flight which the squadron is standing up. The ACOs get approximately 40 hours of flying plus additional simulator time before stepping up to the Super Hornet.

“We were always doing the Navigator training for the right seat of the F-111, however with the retirement of the F-111 and the significantly enhanced capability of the Super Hornet we have to re-think the training of ACOs.” said GPCAPT Clements. “This is done in the back seat of the Hawk. The aircraft is designed to be flown from the front seat or the back seat but you only really need a pilot, so we’ve had to do a little bit of adjusting in our procedures so we can get the ACO involved.”

“The key aim is to get him or her working as a team in an air combat environment, not just flying along in an aeroplane. And therefore we’ll be very much aligning it with what the ACO training in the Super Hornet will be. We’ve written the whole Hawk IFC ACO (IFC-A) course and the first two guys are on it now. They will tag team with a pilot IFC that’s going through in terms of academics and course flights, however we also add in some specific missions tailored to meet their specific training outcomes.”

The RAAF plans to graduate between 42 and 48 pilots per year from 2FTS, of which about half will be required to come to fast jets via 79 and then 76SQNs to meet current classic demands. Of those, about 75 per cent are currently passing the IFC at 76SQN, and 90 per cent of these successfully graduate from 2OCU to an active classic Hornet squadron. These numbers are expected to grow by six to eight per year to meet the expected Super Hornet demand, and demonstrate the huge investment in money and resources committed by the ADF to get just 14 to 16 new fast jet pilots per year flowing into RAAF squadrons.

“I believe our training at the moment is producing well for 2OCU, and with the adjustments we’re making, we believe it will be even better. It’s not just 2OCU graduation, it’s how we get pilots to a B-Cat level in a squadron as fast as possible, a process which should take between two and three years. B-Cat is a pilot’s re-investment position; it’s where you’re guiding and leading and providing advice to people. From there you can take them to a FCI (Fighter Combat Instructor) course, QFI (Qualified Flying Instructor) or TP (Test Pilot), we can send them overseas on exchange or use them in staff positions within Headquarters. When they come back to the squadrons they’re at an experience level where we can make them a flight commander, an XO (Executive Officer) where they can be a flying supervisor.”

To assist during surge periods or at the start of a course, both 76 and 79SQNs utilise reservists. 76SQN has about six reservists who are former fast jet pilots currently flying for airlines or recently retired. Most reservists work between 100 and 150 days a year on a two or three day on/off cycle, and may occasionally come in for an entire week. Essentially each equates to between one-third and a one half of a full time equivalent person.

Previous thoughts to have pilots permanently assigned to 76SQN to fly the aircraft in an ADF support role have not gone ahead due to several reasons including the difficulties in flowing enough suitably qualified pilots through the system. “The squadron structure and manning is primarily about teaching students,” said GPCAPT Clements. “When the aircraft was purchased the plan was to be doing a lot more ADF support, however for various reasons this has not eventuated. It is certainly possible for us to fly more hours, however we have to make sure that is the most cost effective way of meeting the requirements of the ADF, and additionally we need to ensure a Hawk only career stream is developed to not restrict long term career development of our people.”

With the Super Hornet just three months away, 278SQN is also having to adapt to a new curriculum as well. Several of the 278SQN technicians (instructors) have been over in the US with ACTO (the Air Combat Transition Office) learning about and conducting a lot of technical training for the Super Hornet. They’ve been adapting the US Navy trade courses and once the initial cadre of technicians is trained in the US, they come back to continue the training in Australia. “I am extremely happy with the work of 278 SQN staff. They are our experienced technicians who now do a great job in developing and delivering the training aircraft specific courses for all the technicians in ACG. We’re ending up with some pretty good courses; a decision on the stand up time for these courses is due soon but it’s expected to coincide with the arrival of the first aircraft early next year. 278 also does specialist courses for BAE Systems for Hawk, and we also do a bit of cross-FEG training such as NVG maintainer training and confined space entry training for a couple of wings. As we move towards introduction of Super Hornet and JSF, like aircrew, we will have to determine the new skills required by our technicians and ensure they are trained appropriately. 278SQN and our ACG Training Services Team will be at the forefront of that activity.”

Bases

Under Air Force Improvement initiatives 78WG is investigating many ways to provide its capability in a more cost effective way, and to this end has looked at a whole range of areas including various engineering and logistics support concepts and squadron basing options. This included a single base for Hawk operations and, while the initial report suggested it was feasible and may produce long term savings, it also determined that there was short term costs and risks involved.

“Whether it was Pearce, Williamtown or another base, we would require additional infrastructure to be built,” GPCAPT Clements explained. “If for example we combined to Pearce or Williamtown we would have to generate approx 2000 extra missions and 3000 hours from that base. Pearce’s already restricted airspace is really tough with the Singaporean Air Force detachment and 2FTS’s PC-9s there and Perth nearby, and Williamtown would require new infrastructure, a larger HQ, and also has airspace challenges to resolve. Our key role in these discussions is to ensure AFHQ and people such as CDRACG, ACAUST and DCAF are well informed. They have a difficult challenge in the strategic decisions that have to be made in implementing the Air Force Improvement program. That’s why it is important we provide AFHQ with robust data so the right decision can be made.”

Partnership

While squadron ‘blue suiters’ perform daily line maintenance, the 40+ year old structural design of the Hawk means it is subject to five different levels of deep maintenance (R1 to R5), work which is performed by BAE Systems Australia at both Pearce and Williamtown.

“In the structure in which we work – if you think about three circles, one is 78WG, the operators; there is BAE which does deeper level maintenance and provides engineering advice; and there is the DMO which facilitates the support contractually,” GPCAPT Clements said. “In the past there was a perception that, although everyone was doing as best they could there was no common goal, so what we’ve done is sit down and ask ourselves, ‘what are we trying to do?’

“The real aim of this entire organisation is to generate pilots with a side benefit of providing ADF support, but if we weren’t training pilots, this organisation wouldn’t exist. So we’ve come up with a new partnering charter and we’ve moved away from an adversarial position to a point where we’re partnering and the contract supports what we do and where we’re going.

In order to facilitate this, 78WG went through the curriculum review first. “We obviously have targets we’re trying to meet and we’re looking at saving as much as we possibly can while making sure our capability remains the same. The curriculum review determined how many hours we need to fly, how many instructors we need, how big the squadrons need to be. And now we’re looking at the engineering support, the logistics support, and how we can maybe do some different things in the next contract.”

“What we’ve been able to do is explain to BAE what a ‘serviceable’ aircraft means to us. What we have also done is, as a wing we have 33 aircraft while the allowance for attrition over the life of type was seven. When you think about it that means I should be able to generate 9000 hours with 26 aircraft, so we looked at why it was taking us 33.”

A major element of the new charter was recognition from the RAAF and DMO that BAE should be able to make a reasonable profit, a concession BAE was obviously very happy to see in the charter. “For our benefit, our mission was eye-opening to BAE – we told them all we wanted was a contract which facilitates us meeting our capability goals. We explained what happens if a deep maintenance falls behind schedule, how it affects our courses etc. If we don’t drive this cultural change and get these organisations closer together, we can’t meet the improvement initiatives we need to.

“We’ve got to stop thinking about ourselves as three separate organisations – we are essentially the Lead In Fighter Training System. We’re trying to work together as one organisation and be flexible enough to be able to share resources including personnel going back and forth across to BAE to assist, or BAE coming over to the base to assist.”

Hawk Airworthiness

Starting in mid 2008, a number of unrelated incidents including a brake failure on landing, an irregular brake chute release while airborne, and then a wire strike incident at Coffs Harbour all occurred within a few months of each other.

Although seemingly unrelated incidents, 78WG took the view that perhaps there were some systemic issues in these events and decided to conduct a review of all Hawk operations. “It didn’t mean we were about to lose a jet, but we didn’t want to get to that point,” said GPCAPT Clements. “We needed to address it – we put ourselves in a hall of mirrors and took a real close look at what we did.”

“We went away and looked at what was controlled at the wing, what was controlled at the SQN, looked at flight authorisation, planning etc, and that’s where we re-set things. We questioned everything – just because that’s the way it’s always been done, is that necessarily the best way to do it?”

And in the middle of all this, an engine low pressure turbine (LPT) problem was identified with the Hawk’s Rolls-Royce Adour engine after several world wide incidents and Canada lost one of its aircraft. Although a final report into the crash has not been released, the Canadian aircraft is thought to have shed some LPT blades during the flight. Although no RAAF engines have had any LPT issues, all LPT blades on the RAAF’s Adour engines are being inspected and replaced. Meanwhile as a precautionary measure the RAAF has some operational limitations on the Hawk fleet to mitigate the risk of similar occurrences.

“By early next year I expect we will have enough remediated engines in 76SQN’s aircraft to lift the operational restrictions for them, and 79SQN will follow mid year. In the meantime we’re only doing essential flying to maintain an air combat capability and have reduced what we do for ADF support.

Because of the LPT issues and in order to manage the engine remediation program better, 78WG decided earlier this year to reduce the core Hawk training fleet to just 24 aircraft and to reduce flying hours to 6500 per year. The remaining nine aircraft have been put into either a ‘rest pool’ or deeper level maintenance. This was all done in consultation between the RAAF and BAES to ensure the immediate problems didn’t have longer term ramifications to the maintenance schedules.

Future

“Whilst our initial look suggests the aircrew graduate we are producing now may work, we also look at what the USAF are doing with their F-22 etc and we recognise the skill sets required by aircrew are evolving over time,” said GPCAPT Clements in closing. “We will still require the stick and rudder skill for dogfighting etc, but we also require a greater skill level in systems management. Developing that skill on a hawk platform, prior to operational conversion will be required.

The RAAF has plans to upgrade the Hawk as part of a capability assurance program (CAP) to meet the training needs of future platforms such as the F-35. The aim is to build capacity into the aircraft which will also have a side benefit of risk mitigating areas of potential obsolescence, and will focus on the capability being able to take the RAAF into the Super Hornet and JSF era. Project Air 5438, which is yet to get through first pass aims to upgrade or replace systems that will allow growth of the training capability to meet the demands of future air combat. At present the project aims to see many of the aircraft’s systems upgraded or replaced in the 2015-17 timeframe.

“The project is being planned as a capability assurance program rather than a full Mid Life Upgrade, and will reduce the risk to air combat training as be move through the next decade. Obviously the exact solution has not been determined, however in today’s climate for maintaining cost and schedule upgrading with RAAF unique requirements or unproven capability is unlikely to be successful. Aligning ourselves with a proven solution will certainly reduce cost and risk. Being on the cutting edge of experimental technology is probably not required for a training platform such as the Hawk. “We have a key role in the generation of air combat power. The aircraft itself is quite technical – it is as complex as any fourth generation fighter in some senses. It’s a challenge to fly, and from an instructors perspective it’s a good platform. We are part of a complex air combat training system and It takes a lot of effort and planning to do the job well. Everyone within 78 wing is professional and recognises if we mess up, the impact is felt immediately at 2OCU – not in six months, but immediately, and suddenly they either don’t have the numbers or their suspension rates go up. So we’re deeply integrated with what we do at 2OCU and what we’re going to do at 6SQN.”

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