Big Lift

In the US, the training of RAAF personnel on the aircraft recentlycommenced. Originally planned for August last year, that milestone was postponed several months due to delays in developing and establishing L-3’s training syllabus and facilities at Waco, Texas where the aircraft are modified to the US Joint Cargo Aircraft (JCA) configuration. It was necessary to establish a new facility using civilian instructors after the US Air National Guard divested itself of its C-27J JCAs in 2013 and closed its own training school in Georgia.

Training on the C-27J for RAAF maintenance instructors commenced in December, and in January instructor pilot flight training started. It is likely that, as followon waves of RAAF trainees attend future courses the syllabus will be adjusted to better reflect Australian requirements and procedures. And in lieu of the establishment of a C-27J simulator and fuselage trainer in Australia, simulator and cargo hold instruction is being conducted at a facility in Arlington near Dallas-Fort Worth Airport.

Despite the delays, initial operational capability (IOC) for the C-27J remains planned for December 2016, with final operational capability (FOC) to follow about 12 months later.

Scheduled to coincide with FOC is the addition of a Link-16/MIDS datalink to provide a voiceless dynamic retasking capability using the feed from ground-based or airborne sensors. There is also reported interest within the ADF in exploring the capabilities offered on the palletised gunship configurationunder development by Alenia for its MC-27J Praetorian concept.

The C-27Js will be operated by 35SQN and its 10 aircraft are due to move north to an expanded RAAF Amberley to coincide with FOC. To this end, new squadron headquarters and hangar facilities are planned to be constructed in the area just south of the control tower at Amberley where many of the smaller former F-111 maintenance workshops were located but which are no longer suitable.

The C-27J’s arrival will bolster the ranks of the tactical transport fleet, a role increasingly being covered by the C-130J Hercules in recent years.

Originally acquired as a strategic transport to replace the C-130Es in 1999, the J’s role is now primarily a tactical one.

The C-130J has operated increasingly challenging tacticalmissions in Afghanistan since first being deployed in 2006, and the addition of enhanced electronic warfare self-protection systems, a radar warning receiver, enhanced communications, ballistic protection and other changes have enabled the aircraft to operate in tactical environments with greater confidence.

More recently the operating 37SQN and training 285SQN have introduced a revised training syllabus aimed at producing seatagile combat-efficient crews and loadmasters sooner. Previously, C-130J crews and support personnel were required to complete an intense pre-deployment Precision Red tactical exercise before being cleared for operations in the Middle East, but many elements of Precision Red have now been incorporated in the standard type conversion and upgrade courses, with the first course to incorporate the changes starting this year.

More upgrades are coming for the C-130J, including the addition of MIDS/Link-16 and SATCOM communications and cockpit moving-map displays to enable dynamic retasking, new heavy airdrop load validation clearances, the addition of a high-speed airdrop ramp, and the amalgamation of planned Block 7 and Block 8. 1 upgrades. In the meantime, two RAAF C-130Js remain deployed to Al Minhad AB in the UAE in support of ongoing ADF operations in Afghanistan, Iraq and the wider region.

The C-130J’s move into the tactical role was in part enabled by the acquisition of the C-17A Globemaster III which has taken on the vast majority of the ADF’sstrategic and tactical outsized payload transport role since entering service in 2006. With six C-17s operating at near-airliner efficiency and availability levels, the ADF has been able to considerably extend its strategic reach and its ability to rapidly respond to global political and humanitarian crises.

Indeed, so successful has the C-17 been in service, the current fleet of six aircraft operated by 36SQN at Amberley will soon be augmented with at least two and possibly four more examples from Boeing’s company-funded run of 10 ‘white tail’ aircraft currently in production.

With USAF orders ended and customer C-17 orders dwindling, Boeing will cease production of the aircraft later this year. There is believed to still be some interest for additional C-17s from Canada and possibly the UK, as well as India and a couple of customers in the Middle East. For the ADF, funding for two additional C-17s to take the total to eight has already been approved, while two more C-17s will be considered as part of the government’s current Force Structure Review and 2015 Defence White Paper (FSR/ DWP) process, currently due to be handed down in July.

Upgrades currently planned for the RAAF’s C-17s include a secure beyond-line-of-sight communications suite as well as the addition of MIDS/Link-16 for dynamic retasking. This capability was recently demonstrated in a trial, with a real-time ISR feed from a RAAF Heron RPV being relayed direct to a C-17 in flight.

Meanwhile coming into its own is the Airbus Military KC-30A, the Multi-Role Tanker Transport (MRTT) version of the A330-200 airliner. After a much-delayed development program which saw two of its fly-by-wire advanced refuelling boom system (ARBS) booms detach and fall from test aircraft, the aircraft entered service with the RAAF with limited flight clearances for hose and drogue refuelling only from its two wingtipmounted Cobham 905E pods, as well as its considerable under-floor freight and main-deck passenger carrying capabilities.

The limited clearance has culminated in the very impressive operational debut of the KC-30A on Operation Okra in the Middle East. In just four months to the end of January, a single RAAF KC-30A had offloaded nearly 12 million pounds of fuel in 148 missions to not just RAAF Super Hornets, but to coalition aircraft – French Rafales, Saudi Typhoons, UK Tornados, and US Hornets, Super Hornets and Harriers – often flying two missions per day.

The Okra deployment was also thefirst time the RAAF has deployed a force of combat aircraft overseas for operations without allied or commercial tanker support, which is an important milestone.

In the meantime, ongoing development work and trials using the RAAF’s first KC-30A, which has been retained by Airbus as its development aircraft, has paved the way for new software and minor hardware changes to the ARBS which should see it certified by ADF airworthiness authorities by the middle of the year. This aircraft and one other will return to Australia in the second quarter of this year to bring 33SQN’s complement to five KC-30As. After this a clearance program will be initiated for other KC-30As, C-17s, and E-7A Wedgetail receiver aircraft, before clearance trials for the RAAF’s new F-35A fighter commence in the US by the end of the year.

Suggestions by former Defence Minister Senator David Johnston last August of the possible acquisition of a sixth KC-30A will likely be considered more closely as part of the FSR/DWP process. There remains considerable interest in acquiring another aircraft, possibly fitted with a VIP forward cabin so it can be used on overseas VIP missions.

Also believed to be under consideration as part of the FSR/DWP process is the possible acquisition of up to two LC-130J Hercules equipped with landing skis, modified hydraulics and other equipment suitable for operations in support of Australia’s interests in the Antarctic. This proposal has been given greater impetus following the closure of the Wilkins blue ice runway due to rising temperatures, and increasing Chinese interests in the region in recent years.

Finally, there has been little apparent progress in the effort to replace the RAAF’s special purpose aircraft (SPA) VIP fleet which currently comprises two Boeing 737-700BBJs and three Bombardier Challenger 604s, the leases on which expire in early to mid-2017. Industry sources have suggested previously to Australian Aviation that, if an additional KC-30 with a VIP cabin is acquired, the BBJs and 604s may be able to be replaced with a single type in the large-cabin business jet class.