Leading The Way

According to Steve Drury, director for Aerospace at BAE Systems Australia, the Hawk has always led the way in terms of showing how industry can play a key role in determining how a capability is provided and employed.

“The Hawk aircraft has always been on the forefront of new ways of partnering with industry to get best for capability, and providing in this case BAE Systems quite a lot of control; quite a lot of risk transferred to BAE Systems to provide the support,” he told Australian Aviation. “And here we are in the forefront again when it comes to operational maintenance. ” Hawk operational maintenance was previously provided at Williamtown by 76 Squadron and at Pearce by 79 Squadron.

The transition to the new arrangement began in October last year, with BAE Systems taking responsibility for aircraft launch and recovery, rectifications, life support, stores and mission equipment, on-site management support and deployed operations.

“When you think about. . . what has come out in the White Paper, as well as the First Principles Review, they are talking about industry being a fundamental input to capability; those sorts of partnerships where they really allow industry to actually have significant input into the way that capability is provided and used,” said Drury.

“The lead-in fighter has always been in the forefront of that. When the Hawk was bought way back in the mid-90s the contract was even quite novel back then in that they did not even specify the number of aeroplanes to buy, they specified how many should be available for Air Force to make serviceable.

“And it was up to a contractor to put their actions against their words; if they were putting forward an aircraft and they thought it was very reliable and maintainable well they had to prove that by then the contractor had to take the risk on that aircraft being as reliable and maintainable as they said. So in the responses way back then it was BAE Systems who put forward that they needed 33 aircraft to meet the requirements. ” Handing over As a result of the Hawk maintenance transfer to BAE Systems Australia, about 150 RAAF technicians are being redeployed across current platforms and new aircraft such as the Growler and the F-35A.

“The new role took effect on 1 July, and we are now accountable for all maintenance,” said Drury. “There will be some people in uniforms still at the squadrons post 1 July, but they are going to be helping us out just to make sure the transition is smooth and not just moving everything across to us on a particular day, because what comes first is capability.

“But in the mature state. . . it is going to be fully contractor maintenance, and the only Air Force people at those squadrons will be aircrew and maybe an administration officer or something like that. We will be doing logistics, we will be doing maintenance; there will be no uniformed people at all on that side, so it is not a halfway type contract, it is all the way. ” A total of 50 RAAF technicians at the bases are expected to remain until December to complete the transition.

BAE Systems highlighted the fact that as it has started to provide Hawk operational maintenance the company has created 68 jobs at Williamtown, near Newcastle, and 48 jobs at Pearce, near Perth.

“It was a good transition because Air Force is willing to relinquish some of those senior roles and have BAE Systems get used to having people in those roles,” Drury explained. “We have been able to recruit some really good people.

“Some people had actually served in Air Force previously in squadrons; they knew the types of things that people would need. The majority of people came from other areas, other areas of Defence even, and so they had different types of experience.

“And we have been able to meld that together quite well, and we have produced a really well-performing team that through this year has Air Force’s confidence to deliver operational maintenance. ” Deployment support The lead-in fighter is primarily used to prepare RAAF fast jet aircrew for operational conversions to the Hornet, Super Hornet, and ultimately the F-35.

“We will be doing deployments with the Hawk, but definitely not operations. . . and it is easiest to test these sorts of things on a training aircraft,” said Drury.

“There is a bit of fleet support and there are other types of operational support that are provided by the Hawk for the Navy, and some other operations that they do, but they are mostly home-based.

“Deployments are more to do with a training course going elsewhere, like from Williamtown they go to Tamworth for one or two weeks; over in Perth they head north to other places to get different types of flying. ” Could a similar contractor maintenance approach be applied to other RAAF aircraft? “When it comes to operations, Air Force definitely needs people in uniform to go and do those operations, and you cannot expect a depleted squadron to somehow go on those operations; when we talk of the future, maybe there is scope for some sort of hybrid mix,” Drury commented.

“Especially for the fighter force, when you think of doing operational deployments and having to rotate crews, you need to make sure that you have enough reserves to call on that are operationally ready and can provide the support in theatre.

“And I guess the big step that is needed for that is to think whether a hybrid force, or even can contractors, actually provide support in theatre, and that is a policy type consideration for Defence. ” Through the Lead-In Fighter Capability Assurance Program, an upgraded lead-in fighter training system is being delivered, including an upgrade to the fleet of Hawk aircraft and procurement of new full mission simulators.

“That is proceeding really well,” Drury said of the upgrade. “We are already starting to embody the modifications into the fleet and have been through the airworthiness boards, while the prototype aircraft are being used by Defence to prepare for service release in the middle of next year. ” The in-service support contract was expanded last year to include operational maintenance; initially awarded in July 2013 for five years, it includes potential extensions out to 2026.

“Since we have had this latest Hawk in-service support contract, since 2013, what we call Phase 3, we have had a planning cell that is co-located with 78 Wing, at the wing headquarters that is in charge of the two squadrons,” said Drury. “78 Wing itself is actually on our site at Williamtown.

“And the planning cell has four members; it is led by a BAE Systems person, and the other three are a BAE Systems person, a 78 Wing person and a CASG [Capability Acquisition and Sustainment Group] person, and those four basically make decisions that are best for capability.

“So we have always known exactly how best to position aircraft for maintenance or modifications, taking into account flying rates, fatigue usage, but to do all these things in a joint manner that is best for capability.

“And that is one of the secrets behind us being able to do such a good job on Hawk and maintain an effective lead-in fighter training capability for Air Force. ” In the longer term the Integrated Investment Program document that was published with the 2016 Defence White Paper listed a program that is set to provide a new lead-in fighter training system, with a timeframe of 2022 to 2033.

It will be interesting to see what sort of innovative model might be adopted.

it is not a halfway type contract, it is all the way.