C-27J

35SQN has one of the most active associations in the RAAF, and many of its former members continue to take an active interest in maintaining the legacy of ‘Wallaby Airlines’ as the unit was called during the Vietnam conflict. Indeed, new squadron commanding officer WGCDR Brad Clarke told Australian Aviation that the association has been very supportive in the lead-up to and since the unit was re-established. “It hasn’t been that long since 35SQN shut down, so there are still a lot of people who have a connection to the unit. People are pretty excited about seeing the squadron back – and that makes our task a lot easier. It’s important to have good balance there – you can’t just look back to the point where you just re-invent old practices for a new system, but it is important to acknowledge and honour the unit history. ” Part of 35SQN’s initial tasking is to determine what resources it will need – both materiel and human – and when, and to establish a priority list and timeline.

“The next 18 months is about establishing 35SQN as a unit,” explained WGCDR Clarke.

“There is the lead-up to the introduction of the aircraft and setting ourselves up to conduct training and to maintain and operate it, plus there are a number of things we need to do to make 35SQN a fully operational unit. Some of these tasks will be ongoing for the life of the project. It will be five or six years before everything is properly matured, but we need to be in a place in 18 months’ time where we can receive our first aircraft, commence training and operate as a unit that now has aircraft operation and maintenance responsibilities. ” While it is too early to specifically nominate where the initial cadre of 35SQN aircrew personnel will be drawn from, WGCDR Clarke suggested a high percentage would come out of other Air Lift Group (ALG) platforms such as the C-130H/J, C-17 and King Air. “Over time there will be graduates from 2FTS and potentially there’ll be pilots who come from outside of ALG as well,” he said. “We have a higher percentage of C-130H aircrew right now because they were in place and had the necessary skill-sets. ” The initial group of maintenance staff have been drawn from a number of RAAF platforms in an effort to get the right mix of experience to set up the squadron and to establish the initial processes. While around half have C-130H/J experience, others have been chosen because they have previous deployment experience, or they have demonstrated an understanding of technical airworthiness management processes, or they have previously been involved in the introduction of a new type.

“That initial cadre is very important,” said 35SQN’s senior engineering officer, SQNLDR Scott Nelson. “We are establishing things that will last the life of type. We have a couple of guys with Caribou experience, but they weren’t selected for that experience. Overall we’ve got a very good mix of experiences across the board, certainly enough for us to achieve what we need to in the maintenance and logistics domains. ” Interestingly, SQNLDR Nelson was formerly a junior engineering officer at 35SQN in the 1990s when it operated Caribous, so he has come full circle back to lead the engineering element of the unit.

The initial training for 35SQN on the C-27J will be conducted from mid next year at Robins AFB in Georgia by prime contractor L-3. Two levels of training will be conducted – a ‘train-the-trainer’ level for 35SQN’s own flying and maintenance instructors, and conversion training for line aircrew and maintenance personnel. The RAAF’s first three aircraft will be delivered direct to Robins to train on from mid- 2014, before deliveries commence to Australia in early 2015. A training system, including simulators, will also be acquired as part of the project, but this is not due to be delivered until 2017.

An Initial Operational Capability (IOC) is expected to be declared by the end of 2016, and this will see sufficient manpower and sustainment resources in place to operate at least four aircraft for training and domestic or regional operations. Full Operational Capability (FOC) is expected to be realised by the end of 2017.

Efficiencies

The decision to initially base the new aircraft at Richmond has been questioned in some quarters, especially with many elements of the unit’s likely end-users – the Australian Army and the RAAF’s Combat Support Group (CSG) – positioned further north. “It was a combination of factors that saw Richmond chosen,” said WGCDR Clarke. “We’ve got infrastructure here following the C-130H retirement, so the availability of hangar space and a headquarters facility was one of the key factors. ” The commonality of many of the C-27J’s systems with those of the larger C-130J which is also based at Richmond with 37SQN was also taken into consideration. The two aircraft share many of the core avionics and mission systems as well as the Rolls- Royce AE 2100 turboprop engine – the C-130J operates the AE 2100D3 whereas the C-27J’s engine is the AE 2100D2A.

But despite the similarities, the Director of the BFA Transition Office (D-BFATO), GPCAPT Steve Young, explained there are necessary differences between the two types. “Obviously the airframe is different, and being ‘common’ in some areas doesn’t necessarily mean being interchangeable. The engines and The next 18 months is about establishing 35SQN as a unit. WGCDR CLARKE props are two good examples – you couldn’t take an engine off one aircraft and put it on the other but a lot of the sub-components are interchangeable, and you could send the engines for servicing to the same venue and they would have no problems supporting it. The props are also set up differently, but the components are essentially the same. This degree of commonality will allow significant logistics efficiencies but will need maintenance and support staff to be trained on C-27J specifics. ” SQNLDR Nelson added that, while some of the baseline systems of the two aircraft may be common, there are subtle differences to the aircraft as a result of their application on the airframe. For example, the C-130J has been in service with more than a dozen air forces for over a decade, and has been the subject of a decade long Block upgrade program, whereas the C-27J in USAF Joint Cargo Aircraft (JCA) form is in limited service with the US Air National Guard only and has its own upgrade process.

“Being based at Richmond there will be an opportunity to leverage off some of the C-130J workshops and the Project Office will look for some process and personnel efficiency gains that way,” SQNLDR Nelson said. “And certainly ALSPO (the Air Lift Systems Program Office) will eventually benefit from whatever commonality there is between the two platforms in managing the two aircraft types.

BFATO

Supporting 35SQN and reporting directly to the RAAF’s Director General Capability Planning (DGCP) at Air Force Headquarters, the BFATO is responsible for ensuring all the pieces of the puzzle are in place at the right time in order to bring the capability smoothly into service.

“The transition office’s job is to look across all of the elements required to make the capability work, and make sure they’re all integrated in a manner that means the capability achieves what we want out of it,” explained GPCAPT Young. “There are a number of other interactions with existing support agencies within Defence, including Army, and our purview is to hold a big picture view across all the elements of the capability. ” To this end, the BFATO structure was based on lessons learned from the C-17 introduction into RAAF service. It comprises a number of hand-picked staff with recent and strong levels of project or operational experience split between four cells – an ops cell, an engineering and maintenance cell, a workforce and administration cell, and a logistics cell.

The BFATO has been liaising with Army and with the RAAF’s CSG to better define the requirements of the capability and to assess how the new aircraft will affect how these elements do their work. BFATO staff have also visited US ANG units in Maryland and Ohio to gain a better understanding of the aircraft’s real-world performance in operations, both in the US and in Afghanistan.

In late January just after the re-establishment of 35SQN, BFATO staff met with the unit’s initial cadre of personnel as well as DMO, ALG and 84WG staff to brief all of these elements up to a common level, and thus commence the ‘on-the-ground’ planning process for the aircraft’s operational introduction at Richmond. GPCAPT Young said he hoped many of the people from the BFATO will go on to “have a future with the capability in some form or another – it will depend on where they stand in their career progression and other aspirations. ”

US cancellation

The planned cancellation of the US’s JCA program and the early retirement of the C-27J from ANG service – ostensibly as a cost-saving measure – is still expected to occur sometime this year.

But the RAAF has prepared for this eventuality and does not anticipate it having a major effect on its plans. The RAAF’s aircraft will still cost the same as the price negotiated by the USAF for its aircraft, and the baseline Alenia Aermacchi configuration combined with the JCA enhancements added by US-based L-3 are both supportable and upgradeable over the longer term.

“While the C-130J is managed through a block upgrade program which all the other users have input into, the C-27J is managed differently,” said WGCDR Clarke. “The C-27J has a spiral development program where equipment is upgraded when required to deliver capability enhancements or to manage obsolescence. If the US divests from the C-27J, it won’t change this process. ” GPCAPT Young added that, “All we know at the moment is that the USAF is still keen to divest of it, and we should hear something soon. We are prepared so the impact won’t be significant. Our configuration is the same as the ANG is currently flying and that has a pretty robust operational history, and we have avenues in place to get all the support without having to rely on the US. ” The USAF’s plans shouldn’t affect the RAAF’s delivery schedule either, with WGCDR Clarke saying the schedule is “as firm as an aircraft delivery schedule can be and it’s unlikely we’ll see schedule delays on the aircraft. The benefit of this acquisition is it’s not a developmental aircraft – it’s a mature production line that’s been running for many years, so short of some unforseen significant issue, we don’t envisage any delays. ” More than a Caribou replacement One of the worst things the RAAF could do is try to operate the C-27J like a Caribou. While much has been written about the loss of the Caribou’s extreme short and soft field performance, the reality is that this capability was rarely used and thus made up a very minor part of the BFA requirement.

In general terms, the C-27J sits between the C-130J and the Caribou in terms of its short field performance, and opens up three to four times the number of airfields it can operate into in the region compared to the C-130J. WGCDR Clarke explained that the field performance is more about aircraft weight than size.

“The C-27J will allow us to get into softer runways – much depends on how hard the runway is. There are plenty of fields around Australia and the wider region that have the physical dimensions big enough for a C-130, but they’re just too soft. ” GPCAPT Young added, “the C-27 carries roughly the payload of a Chinook over ten times the distance, at roughly the speed of a C-130, but costs about half as much to operate as both of those aircraft. So it’s going to be its own unique capability. There are aspects of it that will be like Caribou, but the performance and the payload it’s carrying is considerably higher. ” WGCDR Clarke enthused that he thinks the C-27J will be “a very useful aircraft” for the ADF. “For what’s its intended and designed to do it will be a very effective aircraft, and more importantly it will fit a gap in the total airlift continuum we have right now. The team here are very enthusiastic and excited about working towards it and I’m confident we’ll have everything in place to operate the aircraft when we need to.

“I am confident it will be a very positive outcome for the ADF. ” The C-27 carries roughly the payload of a Chinook. . . at roughly the speed of a C-130. GPCAPT YOUNG