A Proud Tradition. 100 Years of Naval Aviation

Aircraft continued to be a valued asset of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) from that time, although they were technically RAAF aircraft and flown by RAAF pilots. When the Second World War engulfed the globe, the value of the aircraft carrier rose to the fore. In the wake of the conflict, the navy set about establishing its own aviation branch, the Fleet Air Arm (FAA). Established in 1947, the first of two aircraft carriers, the HMAS Sydney, was commissioned in 1948. Less than three years later, the Sydney, its aircraft and pilots saw action in the Korean War.

The HMAS Sydney passed the baton as the fleet’s aircraft carrier to the HMAS Melbourne in the mid-1950s. In time, the piston-engined Fireflies and Sea Furies that launched from the deck to fly missions over Korea evolved into the jet age, through the deHavilland Sea Venom and the turboprop, Fairey Gannet. The 1960s heralded the emergence of helicopters in the FAA and the Vietnam War saw the ‘Royal Australian Navy Helicopter Flight Vietnam’ of 723 Sqn serve with the US Army 135th Assault Company as a single composite unit, the Experimental Military Unit (EMU), with distinction. This not-so-well-known part of the Navy’s FAA history was highly decorated and 2017 sees its 50th anniversary being commemorated.

The Fleet Air Arm moved through a variety of fixed and rotary wing aircraft and bid farewell to aircraft carrier operations in 1983, with the Melbourne’s A-4 Skyhawks finding a new home with the RNZAF. The retirement of the Grumman Trackers and Hawker Siddeley HS748s, transformed the FAA into the all-rotary wing entity that we know today. Since the first Gulf War 1991, the Fleet Air Arm and the Navy’s ships has a nearly continual presence in the Middle East as well as serving in numerous humanitarian operations both here and abroad. It has been a century of change for the Fleet Air Arm, but with one eye on its history, it has a very real focus on the future.

The Fleet Air Arm Today.

Naval Air Station (NAS), HMAS Albatross is located on the coast at Nowra to the south of Sydney. It is the spiritual home of the Fleet Air Arm having been commission with the former’s inception on 1948. While there are signs of its heritage to be seen, including a Fleet Air Arm Museum, the airfield is populated with an array of modern buildings that reflect the Navy’s recapitalisation over the last decade.

Overlooking the runway and its surrounds is the office of the Commander of the Fleet Air Arm, Commodore Chris Smallhorn. It is not an expansive office, but an efficient space marked with reminders of the FAA’s past which Commodore Smallhorn immediately draws to my attention. On one wall hangs the replica decorations of Admiral Sir Victor Alfred Trumper Smith KBE CB DSC RAN, considered by many as the father of the RAN’s FAA.

On the opposite wall are two very telling framed pictures, one is a poster featuring the HMAS Voyager which sank following a tragic collision with the HMAS Melbourne in 1964 – it is signed by survivors of the Voyager. Beside it is an artwork featuring two Fireflies in formation over nearby Jervis Bay. The two aircraft collided on a training exercise in 1956 with the loss of one crew, while the other managed to ditch on the bay, where it survives to this day beneath the waves.

Within those three frames upon the wall is a recognition of not only the Fleet Air Arm’s significant history and service, but a reminder of the risks that exist and that the lessons of the past should always be remembered and learned from. It is a pivotal concept in aviation and it is no coincidence that Commodore Smallhorn also serves as a Board Member for the Safeskies Conference, the next to be held this year.

The Fleet Air Arm that he commands today is a far cry from the lone Sopwith Baby searching for a German warship a century ago. Consisting of four squadrons, two are of a training nature, 723 and 725, while 808 and 806 Squadrons are the operational units. The FAA is currently in the final stages of re-capitalisation of its helicopter assets, farewelling some tireless servants and welcoming newer technology to the stage.

The single-engined AS350B Squirrel which has long-served in both an embarked and training capacity is now solely in a training role with 723 Squadron. The last Squirrel-trained pilot graduated within recent weeks and airframe ‘864’, a first Gulf War veteran has been retired to the Australian War Memorial. By year’s end, 723 Squadron will be fully equipped with the twin-engined Bell 429 and Aerospatiale EC-135 T2+ helicopters. The new EC-135 T2+ is a key element in a new aircrew training system that incorporates high fidelity simulators, part task trainers and virtual reality environments. All the future Navy and Army aircrew for the futre will be trained by Navy, Army and industry instructors at 723 Sqn.

The other training squadron, 725, has been responsible for instructing crews on the new and highly advanced MH-60R ‘Romeo’ Seahawk, while it is operated at sea, embarked on the Navy’s warships, as a Maritime Combat Helicopter (MCH) by 816 Squadron. The Romeo is a descendant of the Navy’s existing S -70B -2 Seahawk however is equipped with the latest generation highly sophisticated combat systems designed to employ Hellfire air-to-surface missiles and the Mark 54 anti-submarine torpedo. The primary missions of the ‘Romeo’ are in anti-submarine warfare and anti-surface warfare roles, with secondary missions that include search and rescue, logistics support, personnel transport and medical evacuation. It is a potent addition to the Navy’s combat options. Currently 816 Squadron is in transition, operating both the Seahawk ‘Bravo’ and ‘Romeo’, although crews are only endorsed on one variant. The squadron bid farewell to the Bravo in December.

808 Squadron operates six Multi-Role Helicopters (MRH), from a pool of 47 MRH-90s in conjunction with the Australian Army who will be responsible for the deep level maintenance. Designated as a Maritime Support Helicopter (MSH) and as its name would suggest, the ADF’s MRH-90 can fill a variety of roles including troop transport, counter-terrorism, search-and-rescue, medical evacuation and special operations. The Navy MRH90’s are focused on supporting the Fleet in a braod range of utility tasks required to support a task group at sea. It is a formidable search and rescue platform. The MRH-90s were conveyed by ship to ‘Operation Fiji Assist’ in 2016 and two are currently embarked on the navy’s new LHD, HMAS Adelaide.

The way in which the helicopters are utilised varies from the Fleet Air Arm’s origins too. Rather than being assigned to a dedicated ship, the modern helicopter is seen as a Task Group asset and deployed within as required. When embarked, they are referred to as ‘flights’ which generally consist of a single helicopter. However, this number can be expanded if needed as seen with the two MRH-90s currently embarked on the Adelaide. Even so, there is more to the Fleet Air Arm operations than helicopters.

More to the Story.

With the commonality of aircraft between the Army and Navy in the form of the MRH-90, it is logical that the two services have cause to work together. Commodore Smallhorn reflects that the “relationship with the army is as highly valued as it is deep in maturity” and it extends beyond the MRH-90 with CH-47F Chinook and ARH trials also taking place on naval vessels.

For any such operations to take place, on their own behalf or in conjunction with the army, a great deal of research and trials take place beforehand. This is the domain of the AMAFTU, or Aircraft Maintenance and Flight Trials Unit, which is regarded as the centre of expertise for naval aviation experimental and developmental flight test. Also based at Nowra, AMAFTU’s small unit consists of approximately 25 flight test pilots, engineers and systems specialists. Before any new task is put in effect, members of the AMAFTU firstly visit the ship to see if it can actually be done while considering any safety issues or limitations. They are an authority that is independent of the Fleet Air Arm, allowing the unit to focus solely on the trials.

A graduate of the United States Naval Test Pilot School, Commander Smallhorn was posted to the AMAFTU where he conducted flight testing on multiple Australian and international flight test projects, major aircraft acquisition, modification and research programs before becoming the Officer-in-Charge. He explains the relationship and how it works by stating that, “There are two foundation elements to the success and warfighting effect of the Fleet Air Arm, the extraordinary quality of our instructors both in flying and maintenance, and AMAFTU. The AMAFTU establishes the safe and effective operational envelope for our aircraft and then it our instructors, who ensure our culture and professional mastery are of the highest standards such that we stay inside that envelope. All this is of course only achieved when our engineering organisation, the Naval Aviation Systems Program Office under CDRE Scott Lockey’s leadership, and our strategic team in Canberra under CDRE Rob Elliot’s experienced guiding hand, work as one – and we do, the enterprise ticks.”

Having already completed First of Class Flight Trials (FoCFT) involving the ScanEagle unmanned aerial system (UAS) and the army’s CH-47F Chinooks in 2016, this year has been a particularly busy time for the AMAFTU. FoCFTs have covered the MH-60R Seahawk Romeo on board the Adelaide-class frigates and the army’s Tiger Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter (ARH) and MRH-90 onboard the LHDs. There have also been trials of the EC135 T2+ helicopters and Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) for unmanned aerial systems. UAS is yet another area where the Fleet Air Arm is focused on the future.

Unmanned Aerial Systems.

The FAA’s Project SEA 129 is underway to procure an Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) with an embedded, off-board Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) platform that will enhance its ability to perform its primary and secondary missions. However, in this new-age era of ‘drones’, the navy is actually a relative veteran of UAS, employing the GAF Jindivik in the 1950s and the Kalkara in more recent times.

While the role of these earlier systems was as targets, certain facets of the operation still hold true today, such as command from a ground control unit, operations in co-ordination with manned aircraft and utilising recovery teams. Today’s UAS will offer the navy enhanced situational awareness through having eyes-in-the-sky beyond the horizon with intelligence-gathering, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities.

The Fleet Air Arm aims to have a fully operational unmanned aerial systems capacity by the early 2020s. Currently undergoing Operational Evaluation, or OPEVAL, are the winged ScanEagle which is launched from a catapult and the helicopter-like VTOL, Schiebel Camcopter S-100. The ScanEagle has already embarked to the Middle East to continue the evaluation journey and further develop the Navy’s concepts of operations with this fast-growing area of aviation technology.

Commodore Smallhorn sees the future of unmanned aerial systems as being teamed with manned systems to enhance each other’s capabilities. Effectively there will be three categories, Maritime Combat Helicopters (MCH), Maritime Support Helicopters (MSH) and Maritime Tactical Unmanned Aerial Systems (MTUAS). The combination in which they will operate will be dependent upon their combined strengths and the vessels upon which they will embark.

A MCH, such as an MH-60R Romeo, may be strong in combat sensors and armament, but less capable, like most helicopters in terms of endurance. In this case, a MTUAS could be sent in advance to refine the location of operations for the Romeo with those contacts of interest being transmitted from the Romeo to the MTUAS. Conversely, a maritime support helicopter such as an MRH-90 may be strong in the utility role but is not fitted with a suite of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) sensor. If teamed with a MTUAS that is ‘sensor rich’ the two aircraft may work together to provide a wider surface search capacity than the MRH90 could achieve on its own.

As the evaluations continue to be made, Commodore Smallhorn is dedicated to making the Fleet Air Arm the “most informed customer it can be” in its selection of unmanned aerial systems. With ‘Naval Aviation Capability 2040’ launched, one can imagine that UAS will play a significant role in the future, but still there is an asset that Commodore Smallhorn values highly alongside all of the new technology and capabilities that the Fleet Air Arm is acquiring – his people.

Innovation.

Commodore Smallhorn openly admits that he is, “forever impressed by the quality of the people” under his command; his pride in his team is very evident as we talk. Provided with the best equipment, he sees the Fleet Air Arm as a living, breathing example of a body being greater the sum of its parts.

For some, a navy founded on tradition and bound by regulations may not be seen as a haven of innovation, but Commodore Smallhorn, in ensuring the Chief of Navy’s Innovation Statement is put into action, is proving that this is most definitely not the case. Rather than the catchcry of “innovation”, the Fleet Air Arm’s commander prefers to think in terms of the adjective – innovative behaviour. It is a culture that he wishes to instil in every tier of the organisation, from the junior ranks up.

He encourages every member to speak up when they see the potential to improve a process that currently exists and he does this with more than just words or posters. The FAA recently ran a series of ‘Fleet Air Arm Shark Tanks, or FAASTs’ along the lines of the television program where it called upon its people to suggest where improvements could be made. It provided a genuine forum and recognition for those that were prepared to speak up and when the suggestions were acted upon, encouraged others to do the same.

Furthermore, in conjunction with the Business Unit at Sydney University, Commodore Smallhorn is developing a nascent course to Masters level that embraces innovation. It considers the engineering, psychological and business considerations of knowing how and when to think outside the box and then how to implement change in a controlled manner. It will target the FAA’s leaders of tomorrow while still at a relatively junior rank and highlights the belief that the Fleet Air Arm commander genuinely has in his people.

The FAA recently ran a series of Fleet Air Arm ‘Shark Tanks’.

A Proud Tradition.

Much of what the Fleet Air Arm does seems to fly beneath the radar. The Middle East operations that have lasted nearly three decades and the imminent retirement of the Seahawk Bravo, a helicopter that has served widely in various theatres, including combat, and yet has yet to lose an asset. Undoubtedly, records like these are testament to the strength of the people and their equipment.

Amid the depictions of the Fleet Air Arm’s history, a smaller item sits on Commodore Smallhorn’s desk that could be easily overlooked. About the size of a smart phone it is a model of Howard Hughes’ H-1 racing aircraft. The record-breaking civilian aircraft that defied the odds seems out of place in these military surroundings. Commodore Smallhorn explains simply, “I use it to remind people that anything is possible”. With its leadership, its people and its equipment, one cannot doubt that another incredible century lies ahead for the Royal Australian Navy’s Fleet Air Arm.