Looking After The Lightning

The comments made during a briefing on February 24 followed the announcement that BAE Systems Australia and engineering services company TAE had secured regional maintenance, repair, overhaul and upgrade (MRO&U) responsibilities for the airframe and engine respectively.

“Next year we are going to go a step past that and we are going to start assigning capabilities for other components on the aeroplane, like landing gear, like canopies, like airframe systems, like hydraulic systems,” LTGEN Bogdan said.

“And we are going to start building that infrastructure across the three regions, so that airplanes in [each] region can basically be sustained with whatever they need in that region.

“Australian industry plays a huge role in that. I think your industry is well poised to get assigned some of that work, very capable. You are the one partner we have in the Pacific right now, as opposed to [Foreign Military Sales program] customers, and that is important to us. ” Australia announced all the way back in 2002 that it had agreed to join the Joint Strike Fighter(JSF) program as a partner in the expectation that Australian companies would be well positioned to secure a substantial amount of production and support work.

In the Asia Pacific region, the airframe MRO&U capability has been assigned to Australia for the Southern Pacific and Japan for the Northern Pacific, with both of these capabilities required to be up and running not later than early 2018.

The initial regional heavy engine maintenance capability will be provided by Australia by early 2018. Japan is expected to be in a position to provide an additional engine maintenance capability for the Asia Pacific at least three to five years later, making TAE’s engine MRO&U opportunity particularly interesting in terms of potential overseas customers.

LTGEN Bogdan insisted that while geography will undoubtedly limit where airframe heavy maintenance work can be efficiently undertaken, the tyranny of distance will be of less importance when it comes to other aspects of the sustainment effort.

“When you look at geography as a factor in how you sustain and support airplanes long term, what you realise is that when it comes to the heavy maintenance of the airframe, geography matters,” he said.

“But when you talk about component repair or even engine repair – and this engine is modularised so it can be taken apart; many of the pieces and parts on this aeroplane are also similarly modularised – you can move those parts around pretty quick and pretty easy. And as it turns out, from a business case perspective geography matters very little. ”

Building capacity

BAE Systems Australia is facing a busy few years as it prepares tosupport the F-35 in Australia, Steve Drury, director for Aerospace, told Australian Aviation after the company confirmed that it had been assigned the role of Southern Pacific regional depot airframe MRO&U provider.

BAE Systems stated that it is set to provide a heavy airframe maintenance and sustainment capability for the global F-35 fleet in Williamtown, New South Wales, which is where the company currently supports the total sustainment of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Hawk 127 leadin fighter fleet.

“It is going to be a very busy year for us to work out the exact model for contracting this and how it combines with the Australian support that is needed,” Drury said, emphasising that so far there are no guarantees about future work.

“We are going to be working very collaboratively with Australian industry to make sure it is an Australian industry approach to supporting the JSF,” he added.

Drury explained that he is expecting a team from the US to conduct a review of BAE Systems Australia’s facilities, known as a gap analysis, to assess what action needs to be taken to prepare for the arrival of the aircraft.

Action plan

Engine maintenance and engineering services company TAE welcomed its selection as the regional MRO&U provider in the Asia Pacific for the Pratt & Whitney F135 propulsion system.

Speaking to Australian Aviation at the Avalon Airshow, general manager Andrew Sanderson said that establishing this engine sustainment capability at Amberley in Queensland will take TAE two to three years, meaning it needs to quickly set things in motion. The company intends to build on its

It remains to be seen what this will really mean in terms of future work.

experience with the Hornet’s F404 engine and Super Hornet’s F414.

“The key things for us are the unique set of tools that are needed to disassemble and reassemble an engine; they are all unique to each engine type,” Sanderson said. “You then need to design or upgrade a test cell. The model is that we would test engines as they leave the facility; that is a long lead time item to get ready. ” Additional pressing tasks include arranging data transfers and technical training for members of staff. “We will have young folks join our business through apprentice programs to learn what is happening, as well as the experienced people transitioning,” he said. “Yes, it is a new piece of technology, but I think we can have the systems and processes and training within our business. ” Sanderson explained that if an engine fails it would be removed and replaced wherever the aircraft is being operated. The faulty engine would then be split into modules and only the broken components would be shipped to the TAE facility.

“We would repair that one piece,” he said. “That engine piece may not even go back to the Air Force; it might go to another air force because it is part of a global supply chain approach.

“So it is a little different to the way it has been treated in the past, where you buy this many engines and you look after them. You have to think differently about how this would work. ” Indeed, Sanderson pointed out that the company’s first engine MRO&U jobs might actually be for a customer other than Australia. The RAAF’s first F-35A is due to arrive in Australia at the end of 2018, and the first operational squadron is set to be established by 2020.

But after the US Marine Corps achieves initial operational capability (IOC) with the F-35B short takeoff/vertical landing variant this year, Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 121 is scheduled to be deployed to Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Iwakuni in Japan in 2017, for example.

Global fleet

The announcement that BAE Systems Australia and TAE had secured regional MRO&U responsibilities gave industry cause to celebrate, although it remains to be seen what this will really mean in terms of future work.

Recent comments made by Air Vice-Marshal Chris Deeble, program manager for the Joint Strike Fighter Division at the Defence Materiel Organisation (DMO), suggest that lucrative opportunities could be available beyond the Australian aircraft.

“We will be doing engines for the whole region; it will include US deployed forces to North Asia and also to Korea – potentially Singapore, if they sign up as an FMS customer to the program – and the Japanese engines,” AVM Deeble said at the Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Legislation Committee hearing on February 25.

“We envisage there will be some work coming from Korea and Singapore for aircraft maintenance, and also for deployed US forces that will be here in Australia, noting that the rotation may not necessarily lend itself to a maintenance cycle. ” AVM Deeble confirmed at the hearing that airframe and engine MRO&U work in Australia is expected to begin on a relatively small scale from 2018. But by 2025 or 2026, deeper-level maintenance activities are anticipated to have started in earnest, providing great opportunities for Australian industry, he said.