Quantum leap

Big deck aviation returns to the Royal Australian Navy

Navy’s largest and newest warship returned alongside Fleet Base East, Garden Island, in Sydney Harbour on April 23 after a 6,000km (3,240nm), seven-week voyage to conduct the first of three first of class flight trials (FoCFT) to test and set the operating limits of the ship’s aviation elements.

We are … reworking a whole bunch of ‘big deck’ aviation knowledge and experience at sea. CMDR MOGGACH

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HMAS Canberra (L02), the first of two Canberra-class amphibious assault ships – known as LHDs for Landing Helicopter Dock – for the RAN departed Fleet Base East in early March with a full company on board. On its flightdeck were a pair of instrumented 808 Squadron MRH 90 Taipans and a single S-70B-2 Seahawk from 816 Squadron to be used for the essential flight trials along Australia’s east coast. The main component of FoCFT was the evaluation of flying the MRH 90 and Seahawk to and from the deck’s six different landing spots in a range of temperatures, wind speeds from varying directions in all sea states. Initially chasing the warmer temperatures and winds around the Tropic of Capricorn, HMAS Canberra began conducting air operations en route to waters off Townsville.

“We went north first chasing around the weather to look for low deck motion and warm temperatures up off the Coral Sea outside the Great Barrier Reef,” said HMAS Canberra’s commander air, Commander Paul Moggach.

“Unfortunately, there was not a lot of wind, but we did get between 28 to 30 degrees ambient temperature, which on the deck is quite hot withthe reflected heat. This also gave us the opportunity to look at the environmental impacts on the deck crews. ” Speaking with Australian Aviation from onboard Canberra, CMDR Moggach, a former 817 Squadron commanding officer who saw out the retiring Sea King from Navy service, said there is a nice bit of symmetry having retired the 35-yearold helicopter to reprising the role of commander air – the ship’s key aviation manager reporting directly to the captain.

“We really haven’t had a proper commander air afloat since wedecommissioned HMAS Melbourne in 1982. We are establishing the position on both Canberra and Adelaide and reworking a whole bunch of ‘big deck’ aviation knowledge and experience at sea which had largely gone from the RAN, but we are now bringing it back with these ships. ”

Air department

Heading up the LHD’s air department to provide aviation support to the ship, the commander air is also the key airworthiness advisor of all the ship’s aviation elements both operationally and technically.

“More generally, we keep the airfield running to support the embarked forces that we are working with,” said CMDR Moggach. “I have an air engineering team looking after the technical airworthiness and maintaining the aviation support systems – all the equipment on the ship that interacts with the aircraft. The air operations team manages all the operations, planning and mission execution. And the air execution team includes the air traffic controllers and deck teams. ” This ship has two ‘tower’ controllers, known as ‘flyco’, forlocal airspace management, and three joint battlefield airspace controllers (JBACs), who support the broader airspace around the ship.

Using the callsign ‘Canberra Tower’, the flycos control the airspace within a 5nm radius around the ship including arrivals and departure clearances from the ship’s deck. “The flycos are experienced aviators at sea so they understand how the helicopter interacts with ships,” said CMDR Moggach. “They’re in the pressure seat and my seat is really the capacity chair to soak up the broader operational elements, interact with the bridge and the operations room and keep everything flowing along. ” From within the approach cell, in a separate compartment behind the tower team, the JBACs look after the approach work. “I have a [RAAF] squadron leader and two flight lieutenants posted and they’re all quite experienced JBACs,” said CMDR Moggach. “As ‘Canberra Approach’, they look after the airspace out to about 20nm or the airspace that has been defined. They also control aircraft doing instrument approaches using the ship’s radar system. The JBACs are quiteknowledgeable in the interaction between the amphibious airspace management team. ” The ship has surveillance radar used for controlling aircraft out to long ranges. A short-range helicopter control radar is used for close-in control, and secondary surveillance radar is the primary instrument approach to the ship and brings the helicopters down to a quarter of a mile from the stern and to 125ft above the water.

First of class

The FoCFT examined how both helicopter types interacted with the ship at the six different landing spots while loaded at different weight bands. Starting off at a moderate weight before building up to maximum all-up weight, the trials explored the affects of relative wind from different positions around the ship at different speeds.

“We literally increase the envelope out until we reached a limit,” saidCMDR Moggach. “There were a number of limits they looked for. It was either a power limit, a control limit or an actual handling limit which is a judgment call made by the test pilot over the average skill of a pilot about whether they can handle the landing. ” Flying the helicopters were test pilots from the Nowra-based Aircraft Maintenance and Flight Trials Unit in conjunction with a number of flight test engineers and support personnel to keep the helicopters running.

“Over the seven weeks we completed 800 landings which is quite a lot,” said CMDR Moggach. “We looked at everything from low deck motion, low wind speeds, high temperatures and cold temperatures. ” From Townsville, HMAS Canberra headed back down the east coast and across Bass Strait to Storm Bay and the entrance to Hobart’s Derwent River for a combination of high wind speeds and high deck motion.

For HMAS Canberra, the FoCFT was quite complex compared to similar trials on smaller ships where only one landing spot is examined. “We had to do it across all six landing spots and then at the ancillary spaces on the flight deck,” said Moggach. “We also looked at the interaction of the aircraft inside the hangar and on the lifts. We looked at things like securing the aircraft and the different lashing methods for short-term, intermediate and long-term conditions. We looked at the interaction with the maintenance systems, the cranes and the overhead gantry cranes in the hangar plus how to move the aircraft around the ship using the tow motors and the electric handlers. ” The Taipans and Seahawk tested a full range of flightdeck evolutionsincluding vertical replenishment sorties using external loads from the ship’s centre deck aft position and from the for’ard, refuelling and defuelling systems from three fuelling spots and starboard side approaches and departures from aft of the island.

HMAS Canberra’s initial crew of around 60 first formed up in January 2013 and over the next two years grew to become the ship’s full crew of more than 350 when it was commissioned into service on November 28 2014. During their first two years, CMDR Moggach and his air traffic control team went to sea onboard the Royal Navy’s HMS Illustrious for a first-hand look at the ship’s air operations. While in the UK they visited Royal Naval Air Station Yeovilton and walked through their flyco controller’s course to understand how they train their controllers.

A number of the ship’s company also went to Spain and observed operations onboard the SPS Juan Carlos Primeiro, Canberra’s sistership in the Spanish navy, to look at how the ship operated in the amphibious environment. “Unlike HMS Illustrious, our LHD and the Juan Carlos Primeiro have the amphibious dock,” said CMDR Moggach. “Dock down operations limits the ship’s speed and obviously creates a more complex amphibious environment in which to operate aircraft. We had to learn how that was going to work out so we also examined closely the US Navy’s procedures because clearly they are very experienced in aircraft amphibious operations and have a number of different classes of ship where aviation is right there. It gave us a great view of how amphibious operations can be conducted as some of the issues and lessons learnt could be applied into our ship. ” When NUSHIP Adelaide commissions into service – its

We modeled our air operations on the Royal Navy’s. CMDR MOGGACH

commander air will be CMDR Mat Bradley – results from the FoCFT involving the Taipan and Seahawk will automatically be applied to the ship. “In the next trial Canberra will do it with the Tiger ARH in about February or March of next year,” said CMDR Moggach.

“We’ll do essentially the same thing again but this time with Tiger and we’ll look at everything from how to fly to and from the ship and also how to maintain it, weapons handling and loading. ” Later in 2016, NUSHIP Adelaide will do the third and final FoCFT with Army’s recently arrived CH- 47F Chinooks to introduce the Foxtrot type onto the LHD.

“We probably won’t see the Romeo embarked on the LHD as a force, although it is possible and we could do it,” said CMDR Moggach.

“The primary role of the LHD is amphibious warfare and Seahawk Romeo is something completely different. We put Seahawk on for this first trial because the Hawk family of helicopter has significant commonality across the various Hawk types. Out of this trial we’ll be able to produce operating limits for both Black Hawk and for Romeo as well as for the classic Seahawk. ” Navy is aiming for an initial operating capability (IOC) for the LHD capability by the end of this year and expects to achieve full operating capability (FOC) in mid- 2017. Both HMAS Canberra and NUSHIP Adelaide will be based at Fleet Base East.

“East coast operations – that’s where our customer is,” said CMDR Moggach. “We’ll primarily be operating out of Townsville with 3 Brigade, 2nd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (2RAR).

We’ve already done a lot of work in setting up the training with 2RAR.

Also, we’ll be working a lot with 5 Aviation Regiment with their MRH 90s. And there’s some good training areas in North Queensland that we can use so I expect we’ll be spending a lot of time up off Townsville. ” The only aircraft that will be a permanent resident on the LHDs will be a single MRH 90 from 808 Squadron. Attached to the ship, the MRH 90 will work directly for the ship’s captain conducting necessary helicopter tasks in the maritime environment.

“The rest of the spaces will largely be left empty so that the embarked force can be tailored to whatever the mission is,” said CMDR Moggach. “If we are going off to do a humanitarian aid mission post a tsunami for example, then we can load the ship up with engineering heavy equipment. If it’s a more dangerous mission then we can focus more toward the arms corps equipment on board. ”

Under deck

Down stairs, the hangar and light vehicle deck, able to cater for spares and equipment for four helicopter types, will also largely remain empty while alongside and be loaded dependent on a pending mission. The ‘hangar’ takes up only a third of the hangar and light vehicle deck.

“The Chinooks will largely stay on the flightdeck and likely won’t come to the hangar very often unless there is some major maintenanceto be done,” said CMDR Moggach. “The hangar itself is not that big. We can fit between six and eight aircraft depending on what other equipment we have in there, but if we want to do maintenance with rotor blades spread we will tend to use the flightdeck. The hangar and light vehicle deck is a really flexible space across the ship and how it’s filled will be determined by what the mission given to us by government is and what the higher headquarters decides they want to take along on the trip. ” Up on HMAS Canberra’s bow, the 13-degree ski-jump ramp is not just along for the ride. While it would have cost the acquisition project more to remove it, since the ADF has no foreseeable plans to embark STOVL fixed-wing aircraft, the ship’s unique feature does have some practical uses.

“The bonus is underneath the ramp is a whole bunch of office and storage space that is actually quite useful for the ship,” said CMDR Moggach. “And, yes, while it looks like we can take on fixed-wing aircraft, and theoretically it could be done, we have absolutely no plans for that at all. Fixed-wing operations is not what the ship was purchased for. ”

Foreign visitors

Future military exercises in Australia involving foreign forces, including the US Marines and Royal Navy which operate, or will operate, the F-35B Lightning II, could see a fixed-wing type touch down on the LHD’s decks. “Potentially, but it would need a significant amount of pre-planning and work to do that,” said CMDR Moggach. “We are planning on integrating US Navy and US Marine Corp aircraft at RIMPAC 2016 as part of that exercise but certainly the ‘jump jets’ are not part of that. ” CMDR Moggach reaffirms that having the F-35B on deck would come with a fairly heavy burden of calculation, addition of approach aids and equipment that the LHDs are not fitted with because embarking fixed-wing aircraft is not the ship’s intended role. “Certainly, in an emergency, as a spare deck, it is plausible that we could land one on, but it is not something that we are planning on at all. ” Exercise RIMPAC 2016 will likely see the Marines’ AH-1Z Viper, UH‑1Y, and potentially CH-53 and V-22 Ospreys on HMAS Canberra’s deck. From an air trafficcontrol perspective, the arrival and departure procedures for aircrews landing on Navy’s LHDs will be a very similar practice to what they are already doing on other classes of ship.

“We modelled our air operations on the Royal Navy’s operations,” said CMDR Moggach. “Most of our operations to our smaller ships are a blend between Royal Navy and US Navy operations, which are all pretty similar anyway, so we had a great template to work from. A pilot coming from the Royal Navy or US Navy will feel entirely comfortable with approaching the ship. ”

On the markings

The markings on the Canberra’s flightdeck closely resemble the US Navy marking system. However, when the LHDs were ordered the decks were painted the same as the SPS Juan Carlos Primeiro. “That’s our reference ship if you like and that’s why we have the black-coloured ‘tram tacks’ down the middle there for fixed-wing operations,” said CMDR Moggach. “The markings align with a series of panel LED lights for our night lighting. ” Each of the LHD’s six landing spots, for MRH 90, Seahawk andTiger, has a horizontal bum line, a fore and aft aircraft line and a 45-degree night vision device (NVD) reference line. Yellow A, B, C and D lettering mark the four Chinook landing spots with yellow boxes identifying the helicopter’s left wheel marks. On the starboard side a red and white dashed line represents the rotor tip safety line where equipment and personnel are required to be safely starboard of.

The FoCFT revealed how effective the ship’s night lighting was. The panel lighting fitted to the LHD is unlike any other ship in Navy’s fleet. It is coloured with blue deck edge and green deck spot and tram track lighting.

“We did a lot of night flying to prove the deck lighting,” said CMDR Moggach. “What we found with ANVIS NVD on the Seahawk, while it doesn’t show up the colours, and the TopOwl NVD in the MRH 90, which does allow you to see the colours at night, the lighting on the ship it is really very good. There was some leakage of non-NVD-compatible lights, but that is why we do trials so we can tweak those sorts of things. The test pilots and aircrews commented that working to the deck at night was really, very good. ” HMAS Canberra features white NVD-compatible wash lights down the superstructure that gives a three-dimensional texture for the aircrews. Combined with the green and blue panel and deck edge lighting, the test crews commented on their ability to easily see all the landing spots on the deck including any deck motion.

“We operated in conditions where we had full moon lighting, then down off Tasmania we had some no moon nights,” said CMDR Moggach. “Even without the deck panel lighting on, you could stillmake out the deck very well with the NVDs. ” An interesting yet essential test during the FoCFT saw the Seahawk, simulating a one engine inoperative scenario, approaching the LHD from the stern and making a rolling landing as it would at an airport. “It’s an emergency procedure and this would not be a routine thing but we proved that we could do it and it worked very well,” said CMDR Moggach.

Big ship, big motion

The ship is big, stating the obvious. The flight deck is 27. 5m above the waterline and its deck is 202m long. When a smaller ship pitches in a swell, one degree of pitch does not cause much in the way of deck movement, but on the LHD, it does.

“One degree at [landing] spot 1 up for’ard is actually quite a bit of movement as the moment arm extends about two-thirds the way down the ship,” said CMDR Moggach. “However, one degree of pitch at spots 4 and 5 there is almost no deck movement. There may well be different limitations on the different spots in the same weather conditions simply because of the size of the ship. Most of the areas where we’ll be operating won’t have a lot of swell, but when we do get out in the open ocean it’s something that we will need to think about and take into consideration. ” On the LHD’s deck, spot 1 starts at the for’ard running down to spot 6 at the furthest aft on the deck’s port side. “The way the RN and US normally operate their flightdeck are from the spots that are about two thirds of the way down the ship,” said CMDR Moggach. “There is a number of reasons for that because the deck motion is limited there, but it frees up a huge part of yourdeck for’ard for other activities if you need it. And it’s also adjacent to your main entry and exit points to the superstructure and other support elements. We’ll primarily operate to spots 3, 4, and 5 and only go to the for’ard spots when we have to. ”

Amphibious capability

The flightdeck element is only half the capability output of HMAS Canberra, the other being the ship’s well dock which is capable of supporting four LCM-1E landing craft.

“We can move people or equipment ashore by both helicopter and by landing craft and more often than not we’ll do both together,” said CDMR Moggach. “This is not just an aviation platform, the LHD is an integrated platform where a whole bunch of people work to deliver the amphibious capability and aviation is just one part of it. Between our maintainers in the hangar, the dock control, the hospital and the rest of the support team, this ship is one big capability of which air is only a small part, but a very critical and visible part on it and now we’re going to integrate it all with the Army in the next phase of our work. ” After a three year posting, CMDR Moggach will be relieved from his position in January when 808 SQN’s current commanding officer, CMDR Adrian Capner, takes over as HMAS Canberra’s commander air.

“The FoCFT was enormously successful and you can see straight away by having achieved 800 landings and a number of different evolutions, we have shown that this is a fantastic aviation facility in the LHD,” said CMDR Moggach. “It brings a quantum leap in deployable capability for multiple aircraft at sea to anything we have had in the past. ”