Cayman contender

Lineage

The NH 90 and its NFH derivative evolved from a late 1980s NATO requirement for a new troop transport and ship borne maritime helicopter to equip multiple nations.

Following an agreement between France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands in 1990 for a joint development program, NATO Helicopter Industries (NHI) was established in 1992 to develop the helicopter, and comprises Eurocopter France, Eurocopter Deutschland, and Italy’s AgustaWestland with a roughly one third stake each, and Dutch company Stork Fokker Aerospace with five per cent.

There are two main versions of the NH 90, the Troop Transport Helicopter or TTH upon which aircraft ordered by customers for mostly land based utility missions are based, and the NFH or NATO Frigate Helicopter which is a dedicated shipborne anti-submarine (ASW) and anti-surface warfare (ASuW) machine, although some customers have specified different configurations such as Sweden which has the unique requirement of a 40cm taller cabin.

The NFH program was re-baselined in 2008 following a number of integration and other technical issues were found. “After the 2008 re-baseline of the contract where we said we would deliver the first NFH to the Netherlands and France by the second quarter 2010 which we have done, and this has given a lot of credibility to this program,” explained Eurocopter’s head of government programs, Dominique Maudet told Australian media during a recent visit to the company’s Marignane, France headquarters. “We were in a bit of a shaky environment in 2006-08 where we had some technical issues which have been fixed, and now the French are operating two NFHs and the feedback we have is they are very happy with the helicopter which seems to have achieved a really good level of maturity.”

The ADF ordered a total of 46 MRH 90s, a version of the TTH for Phases 2 (12), 4 (28) and 6 (6) of the Air 9000 program to initial supplement and then replace Army’s Black Hawk fleet, and to replace Navy’s Sea King helicopters respectively.

Capabilities

The NH 90 has racked up 529 form orders from 14 countries since it was launched, eight of which have taken deliveries of a total of 59. Also included in that total are 111 of the NFH variant for France (27), Italy (46), Netherlands (20), Noway (14) and Belgium (4).

The French NFH upon which the Australian Air 9000 Phase 8 bid has been based is equipped with a 360 degree tactical radar with multi target track-while-scan and an inverse synthetic aperture (ISAR) capability; a nose mounted tactical Forward Looking Infra Red (FLIR) turret which is interfaced with the aircraft’s radar and navigations system; a FLASH low frequency continuous wave and frequency modulation dipping sonar; a sonar buoy launcher and acoustic processing system; and a comprehensive electronic warfare and Electronic Support measures (ESM) suite.

The communications suite includes UHF/VHF comms, Link 11 for maritime datalinks, an IFF interrogator, and importantly, Australian Aerospace’s bid for the RAN includes Link 16 to be included as standard.

Armament consists of up to two MU90 or Mk46 torpedoes or two 25km range MBDA Marte MkII anti-ship missiles, or one of each, and a door mounted gun. Interestingly, MBDA is working on a longer range Marte-ER missile which will extend its range to about 100km, although this is an internal company funded study and has not been ordered by any operators yet.

The large cabin is augmented by an optional rear ramp which allows the loading of outsize cargo and a rapid egress of troops, or when conducting ASW or ASuW missions can be removed and replaced with a lighter cover panel. Half of France’s NFHs will be delivered with the optional ramp, and these can be rotated throughout aircraft within the fleet.

The machine’s tail boom and main rotors can be folded or unfolded within 60 seconds using onboard onboard electric motors for quick stowage or employment.

The NFH also boasts a four hour mission endurance for a typical ASW mission which includes cruise speed out to the search area 90km from the ship, sonar buoy drops and two hours of search patterns, or three and a half hours of dipping sonar cycles. For the ASuW mission, the NFH can conduct a three hour search mission more than 90km from the ship.

Although the usual crew is three, an optional station can be fitted in the NFH cabin for a fourth crew member for intensive mission that requires two pilots, a tactical officer (TACCO) and a sensor operator (SENSO).

French Navy

All NH 90s are dubbed ‘Cayman’ in French service, and the French Navy has ordered 27 NFHs and began test flying the first example shortly after its delivery in May at its Navy Flight Test Centre at Hyères (pronounced ee-air) on the Mediterranean coast near Toulon, while the second aircraft arrived in early September and one more is due to be delivered before the end of the year.

The three aircraft will be operated and evaluated by the Centre d’Expérimentations Pratiques et de reception de l’Aéronautique navale (Naval Aeronautical Test Centre, or CEPA/10S) alongside examples of most rotary and fixed wing types in French naval service, until the type is cleared for operational service in 2011. CEPA’s competencies have been recognised and certified by the France’s Direction Générale pour l’Armement (DGA, Director General for Ordnance), the government agency responsible for weapons systems development, evaluation and certification, and the unit has the capability to rapidly develop operational concepts and weapons from prototype to an operational status.

During our visit, apart from the aircraft based there the busy Hyères ramp was also playing host to the Charles de Gaulle carrier air group which comprised Eurocopter Dauphins, Westland Lynx, Dassault Rafales and Super Etendards, and E-2C Hawkeyes, prior to the carrier deploying to the Indian Ocean.

To date, all NFHs have been delivered with the ‘Step A’ flight software configuration which means, whilst they are equipped with most of the planned missions systems such as a hoist, radar, FLIR turret, ESM, Link 11 and acoustic processors, they have been cleared just for the training of crews, for search and rescue (SECMAR) and troop transport (MCT) missions, and for initial ship interface qualification work.

Step B aircraft will be delivered from 2011 with the definitive software load, and will be fully combat capable with chaff and flare ejectors, external stores carriage, a side door machine gun mount, and full ship interface qualifications, and CEPA plans to have these cleared in time for an expected Initial Operating Capability (IOC) in 2012, and Full Operational Capability (FOC) with the French Navy in 2014.

At time of writing, about 120 flying hours had been conducted with the first two aircraft, with hours split between the training of a core group of test pilots and crew members, currency flying, and various test and evaluation work including initial shipborne trials in the Mediterranean. The unit has about 10 pilots and observers qualified on the NFH. Also in place at Hyères are two part-task trainers and several computer aided instruction consoles, while a full flight simulator is scheduled to be delivered in 2014.

Apart from the test and evaluation work, CEPA/10S will also develop an initial operational doctrine for the Cayman in French service, and will prepare the tactical manual or NH90 maritime flying guide for the French Navy’s future operating units. A priority is the development of the three crew concept of the NFH; this being the pilot, the observer or TACCO, and the SENSO, so the initial SECMAR unit can be stood up in Brittany by the end of 2011.

Indeed, the French Navy is taking the lead in that country’s NH 90 training, as the Army is yet to receive any of the 34 NH 90 TTHs and 34 options it has on order yet. The Navy’s experiences with the Cayman will be compiled at the Centre de Formation Inter Armées (CFIA – the joint NH 90 training unit) which will be established at Luc en Provence northwest of Marseille in 2011.

The French navy plans to operate its Caymans from four classes of ship; the Horizon class destroyers, FREMM frigates, Tonnerre class LPDs, and the nuclear powered carrier, Charles de Gaulle. In French service, the NFH will replace Westland Lynx, Eurocopter Dauphins and Aerospatiale Super Frelon helicopters.

At present, the French Navy has 102 personnel dedicated to NFH development and flight test work. This will taper off to about 45 from late next year as the planned training and operational squadrons build up their numbers to more about 200 personnel from 2012.

Nfh & Australia

As part of its bid, Australian Aerospace is proposing a large industry based package with the NFH. As with the MRH 90s, the company is proposing to assemble the NFHs at its Pinkenba facilities near Brisbane Airport, the engines at RTM at Bankstown Airport, and to fabricate large composite components at its Brisbane composite facility.

The company says 750 jobs will be created for the NFH assembly program, 500 of which are directly related to the program and 250 indirectly linked, and that significant technology transfers to Australia will also be made, while a further 100 jobs will be created at Nowra to support the helicopter in service.

Once the build run is completed, the Brisbane facilities and workforce will transition to the in service maintenance and logistics support to the nearly 100 ARH Tiger, MRH 90 and if successful, NFHs in Australian service through to at least the late 2030s.

Australian Aerospace says its aircraft has several advantages over that of its competitor, not least of which is Air 9000’s originally stated goal to reduce the number of types of helicopters in ADF service from nine to just four; the new training helicopter to be selected under Air 9000 Phase 7, the ARH Tiger, the CH-47D/F Chinook, and the MRH 90/NFH. The NFH’s 80 per cent or more commonality with the MRH 90 in its airframe, engines and major ancillary components means much of its support and maintenance is common to the MRH and thus can be supported as a single type, whereas an MH-60R Romeo buy would add a fifth type to the mix.

The company also says the NFH’s composite construction will better withstand the harsh marine environment over the life of the machine, and that its quad redundant fly-by-wire flight control system also has better resistance to the environment as well as providing better manoeuvrability and control in challenging conditions.

Despite similar deck footprints, the NFH has a far larger cabin than the MH-60R giving it more mission flexibility when deployed as a single unit. Even with its full mission kit installed, the NFH has seating for eight people for transport or boarding party missions, or can be reconfigured to carry 14 fully equipped troops within two hours. It also has plenty of space to conduct vertical replenishment or supply missions between ships or ship to shore, and the previously mentioned optional rear ramp and doors on both sides also allows for faster loading and egress, or for the transport of outsized items to a ship.

Australian Aerospace also points out the NFH’s safety features, including an emergency floatation system which will keep the helicopter afloat and upright in the event of a ditching in heavy seas. The ADF’s MRH 90s have been equipped with this same system which can be removed for land missions but quickly added for amphibious or naval operations.

Concerns have been raised about the immaturity of the NFH compared to its competition, a fact borne out by ongoing development issues with the MRH 90 and the stepped delivery approach of European NFHs.

Australian Aerospace is confident that, with an accelerating development program in France showing promising results, it can meet the RAN’s IOC schedule of 2014 with a fully capable Step B configured aircraft. But it is this perception of immaturity and therefore risk that may work against the NFH, particularly in the current environment with the ADF still reeling from the Seasprite debacle and leaning towards solutions which are US compatible, already-in-service, and off-the-shelf.