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Raytheon in thick oftrainer selection contests

Alan Dron

Raytheon is bringing its T-6B turboprop trainer to theUK not only for the airshowbut also for a series of flightevaluations at Blackbushe,near Farnborough, as partof the UK’s Military Flying Training System(MFTS) project.

The 25-year MFTS willteam the UK Ministry ofDefence (MoD) with anindustry provider tomanage the instruction of some 1,500 pi lots a year across 20 aircrewdisciplines.

Selection of a partnerfrom among threecompeting consortia hassl ipped from May toNovember, but theprogramme is expected tobe up and running byApril 2007.

The winning consortiumand the MoD will choosethe aircraft felt to be bestsuited for the basic trainerrole. Contenders include

the Aermacchi M311 andM346, plus the Pilatus PC-21 and T-6B, to replace theShorts Tucano that hasfilled the basic training taskfor the UK Royal Air Forcesince the mid-1980s.

Raytheon has added anembedded training capa-bility, head-up display andmultifunction displays forthe T-6B and is able toretrofit the latter’s avionicsinto earlier T-6As if acustomer wishes.

The company is prom-ising an announcementabout the type tomorrow.

Contrary to reports inlate May, Singapore has notrejected the T-6B for its airforce’s trainer competition,says Jim Smith, RaytheonAircraft vice-president,Government Business.“There were two reportsthree days apart,” he says.One said that the EmbraerSuper Tucano and the T-6Bhad been cut; the other thatthe other two competitors,the M311 and the PC-21,had been unsuccessful.

Both reports were incor-rect, says Smith: “There’sbeen no downselect.

“The Singaporeans arevery, very thorough andprofessional in their evalua-tions. We were told early on[in the contest] what theprocess was going to be andwhen things were going tohappen and they’vefollowed that sequencealmost to the day.”

He expects a decision onthe winning contender inlate September or earlyOctober.

Of the other exportcompetitions on thehorizon, says Smith,Raytheon is in the finalstages of formulating itsresponse to a request forproposals from Turkey.There is also a request forinformation from Israel,

which is seeking to replaceits elderly Zukit trainers.Chile has expressed interestin replacing its Casa C-101s,while the United ArabEmirates is looking not onlyfor a trainer aircraft but“creative ideas on theirtraining system”, he says.

And, while no formalrequirement yet exists ,Smith believes that Iraq’sf ledgling air force wil lhave a need for a trainerand light aircraft.

Smith says Raytheon hastalked to one customerabout putting the AIM-9Sidewinder and AGM-65Maverick on the T-6B: “Youcould put on the AIM-9Xand undertake a NobleEagle-type mission toprotect cities, as has beendone in the US.”

Raytheon is bringing asingle T-6B to Farnborough,which will be used for boththe static and flying display.The demonstrations willagain be flown by three-times US national aerobaticchampion, Patty Wagstaff.

One aircraft heavilyinvolved in operations inAfghanistan and Iraq is theApache helicopter andBoeing is happy to bring anexample of the battle-proven AH-64 to theFarnborough display.

The US Army’s Apachefleet reached the milestoneof two million flight hoursin late 2005, almost one-third of them added duringthe past four years, sayrecently released US Armyoperational summaries. Thefleet continues to addhundreds of hours everymonth in Iraq andAfghanistan.

Operation Iraqi Freedomalone now accounts formore than 200,000 flyinghours.

Between 1984 and 1997,McDonnell DouglasHelicopters (now Boeing) atMesa, Arizona, produced937 AH-64As for the USArmy and five exportcustomers, and has sinceconverted 284 A-models toAH-64D Block I and 217 to

AH-64D Block II standardsfor the US Army.

Boeing has also contractedto build 145 AH-64Ds for fivefurther export customers,and is under contract tobuild 13 new AH-64Ds as‘wartime replacement (attri-tion)’ aircraft and to remanu-facture 96 AH-64As to AH-64D standards under theExtended Block IIprogramme.

ConversionBoeing signed the first

Block III Apache LongbowRDT&E Contract on 6 July2005, setting the stage for aLong-Term ModernisationProgramme that will see 284

Block I aircraft beingconverted from 2010,following the completion ofcurrent Apache productionwork.

The Block III upgrade willprovide the Apache withmuch improved network-centric warfare capabilitiesthrough 25 technologyinsertions. The aircraft willgain open systems architec-ture, wideband networkcommunications, extendedrange sensing, extendedrange fire control radar,extended range missiles,and data fusion to allow themerging of on- and off-board sensor imagery.

A key part of the Block III

upgrade will be the provisionof Level IV unmanned aerialvehicle control. Boeingdemonstrated the ability ofAH-64 to control a UAV on12 April, as part of theAirborne Manned/Unmanned SystemTechnology Demonstration(AMUST-D) programme.

The Apache took controlof and commandingmultiple payloads on thecompany's UnmannedLittle Bird (ULB) UAV tech-nology demonstrator. Thetests included a standardHellfire firing sequencefrom the ULB, using an L3Communications' tacticalcommon data link.

Loss of the Eagle Eye demonstrator gives Bell pause for thought.

The crash of Bell’s TR918Eagle Eye tiltrotor demon-strator in April will notderail the Eagle Eyeprogramme, but it has ledto a period of reflectionamong the programmeteam, says Bell chief execu-tive Mike Redenbaugh.

Redenbaugh says Bellremains “100%committed” to the tech-nology, but the Eagle Eyeteam will be taking thetime to l isten to thecustomer and examine allthe current technologiesbefore deciding on thenext steps.

“It’s called experimentalflight test for a very goodreason,” says the Bellchief. “You learn a lot from

the process. “We’ll beleveraging what we learnedas we go forward.”

The unmanned airvehicle technologydemonstrator crashed on 5April after losing enginepower while in a stablehover. The aircraft ,powered by a Pratt &Whitney Canada PW207turboshaft, was signifi -cantly damaged in themishap at Bell’s flight-testcentre near Fort Worth,Texas.

The US Coast Guard islaunch customer for thetechnology and hasordered 45 Eagle Eyes and33 ground stations, with aplanned in-service date of2010-11.

Eagle Eye crash knocksBell onto back foot

Apacheon thewar path

Bell sees lightat end of H-1service tunnelBell believes the troubled H-1 helicopter upgradeprogramme has turned thecorner after months ofprotracted delays and esca-lating production costs.

The company says it isnow ahead of a recoveryplan launched at the start of2006 and will deliver fouraircraft this year.

Operational Evaluation ofthe H-1 by the US MarineCorp began in May.

Bell chief executive MikeRedenbaugh said the busi-ness now had a muchfirmer handle on the issuesthat had taken theprogramme off track.

“In terms of remanufac-ture, the condition of theincoming aircraft was morevaried than we expected.”

The USMC has alteredthe programme, which wasbased around remanufac-turing 180 AH-1W attackhelicopters and 100 UH-1Nutility aircraft to a new AH-1Z/UH-1Y standard.

Under fresh plans, 90 ofthe 100 utility aircraft willbe new-build. Operationalcapability for the AH-1Zand UH-1Y is scheduledfor 2008.

Raytheon’s T-6B is set for flight evaluations at Blackbushe.

The battle-proven AH-64 is ondisplay at the show.

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Coming together.

Carmen Systems has been acquired by Jeppesen. With the acquisition, Jeppesen now offers the industry’s most robust AOC solution, and enhanced information management tools which allow you tomore effectively manage operations, productivity and bottom line profitability.

www.jeppesen.com/carmen

Jon Lake

The Boeing F/A-18E/F SuperHornet is wowing airshowaudiences with an impres-sive if conventional fast jetdisplay, exploiting Hornet’shigh alpha capabilities,tight turn radius and sheervolume.

Piloting the displayaircraft, an example leasedback to Boeing from VFA-122, the Super Hornet FleetReplacement Squadron atNAS Lemoore, California, ischief test pilot RicardoTraven, a former CanadianArmed Forces pilot.

What Farnborough audi-ences do not see is the solidsuccess of the Super Hornerprogramme: operationalwith 15 squadrons, 275aircraft delivered up to May

Bahrain will formally take delivery ofthe first of six Hawk 129 advanced jettrainers (AJT) from BAE Systems today,and is believed to be considering exer-cising an option for up to six moreaircraft.

The aircraft will ceremonially flyinto Farnborough with the Red Arrows,and will be handed over to the C-in-C ofthe Bahraini armed forces.

Formally accepted at BAE's Wartonsite in Lancashire on 30 June, theaircraft - 501 - is one of five Hawk 129sto have been delivered to Warton forflight testing to date. Bahrain's last

aircraft is now nearing completion atBrough in Yorkshire.

All six will be delivered to thecountry by year-end. The Hawk 129 willprovide the advanced element of anational training system supplied toBahrain by BAE. This includes threeSlingsby Firefly basic trainers andsynthetic training devices.

BAE will also exhibit its first of twoHawk 128 AJT demonstrators for the UKRoyal Air Force, in anticipation of a 26-aircraft production order and will show-case its sensor simulation capabilitiesusing Hawk development aircraft ZJ951.

Wedgetail isgetting backon trackBoeing says plans arealready in place to get theambitious internationalAirborne SurveillanceProgramme back on track,after announcing it wouldinclude $300-$500 millionof pre-tax charges.

These charges reflect theexpected financial impactof schedule delays and costgrowth on fixed-pricecontracts related to theAirborne Early Warning andControl (AEW&C) programme.

Known as Wedgetail inAustralia and Peace Eagle inTurkey, this internationalprogramme involvesproducing a new AEW plat-form by fitting and inte-grating a variety ofcommand and control andadvanced radar systems,new command and controlsoftware, a new communi-cations system, and adatalink, on a Boeing 737-700 aircraft.

Some of these newsystems had never beeninstalled on an aircraft plat-form before.

There were a number ofearly integration problemsbut though these wereeasily addressed thecompany then encounteredmore difficult “technicaland schedule challenges”,and quickly came to realisethat some of the assump-tions it had made based onthe 707 and 767 AEWprogrammes were flawed.

As a result, theprogramme has been reor-ganised to improve systemsengineering focus.

Aerial display is only partof the Super Hornet story

2006, under cost and aheadof schedule.

The new Block II SuperHornet is now in servicewith the US Navy’s frontlinesquadrons. The Block IIaircraft has new displays,with a decoupled rearcockpit in the two-seat F/A-

18F, new ATFLIR targetingpod and JHMCS helmetsight. Seven Block II aircraftequipped with AN/APG-79AESA radar have alreadyjoined VFA-213 ‘Black Lions’at Oceana, and all Block IIaircraft will be deliveredwith AESA from 2008.

For its part, Boeing iscontinuing to drive cost outof the programme, loweringthe unit cost by instigatinga number of new processes,including the adoption of a‘pulsed’ production line inMarch 2005.

All 10 of the Navy’scarrier air wings nowinclude at least one SuperHornet squadron. Six wingshave two squadrons, andthere is a ‘programme ofrecord’ for 490 aircraft, witha real chance of furtherorders for export customers,including India, Japan andMalaysia.

In marked contrast to theattitude displayed by someUS manufacturers, Boeing isfocused on providing directand indirect offset work forSuper Hornet customers. Asone programme insider

explained: “The CEO has atruly global outlook, andhis mentality and philos-ophy permeates everythingwe do on the SuperHornet.”

Kory Matthews, respon-sible for programme inte-gration, says he has the“best job” in Boeing,bringing new capabilities tothis superb warplane.

“This is anything but alegacy platform, relevant,dominant and the premierfighter for the US Navy intothe 2020s. The SuperHornet is now supportingthe warfighter in the waragainst terror, and is theNavy’s frontline fighteragainst all threats, todayand tomorrow.”

The aircraft has a 90%mission capable rate whendeployed.

Hawk trainers fly into Farnborough for Bahrain handover

The Hawk 129 AJT: ceremonial flight.

The Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet: impressive.

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Smiths Aerospace has been awarded the contract for the development and supply of itscomprehensive health and usage monitoring system (HUMS) technology for the Future Lynx.

Smiths says the contract is worth $21 million and involves the implementation of theSmiths combined HUMS and cockpit voice and flight data recorder (HUMS/CVFDR) capabilityon all 70 Future Lynx on order for the UK Ministry of Defence.

"With more than 400 HUMS and two million flight hours, Smiths is the world leader in thesupply of HUMS for both military and commercial helicopter applications," says John Ferrie,president of Smiths Aerospace.

Development is due to begin this year at the Smiths' facilities located at Southampton in theUK and Michigan in the USA. HUMS production deliveries are scheduled to begin in 2011.Smiths says its HUMS offers both improved safety and reduced operating costs and can bereadily configured for a variety of helicopter platforms.

Smiths HUMs a happy tune

Sentinel shows shapeof UK defence future

Alan Dron

One of the defence high-lights of the show is thefirst major public appear-ance of the aircraft that willplay a major role in theUK’s future intelligence,surveillance, target acquisi-tion and reconnaissance(ISTAR) plans.

The Sentinel R1, the plat-form for the UK’s AirborneStand-off Radar (ASTOR)will be prominent on whatprogramme integratorRaytheon calls ‘The ASTORZone’ in front ofFarnborough’s MediaCentre.

As well as the Sentinel,one of the system’s modulartactical ground stations,carried on board aPinzgauer truck, will be onshow. In service, theSentinel will operate either‘on-tether’, with one of

these forward-deployedground stations, or ‘off-tether’, without groundsupport.

The aircraft appearinghere in the third example ofthe five heavily-modifiedBombardier Global Expressexecutive jets that willmake up the complementof the UK Royal Air Force’s5 (Army Co-operation) Sqn.

RoleThat role is emphasised

by the planned comple-ment of Sentinel crews: oneof the two image analystson board will be Armypersonnel. In total, around130 of 5 Sqn’s 300 memberswill be Army, and a smallnumber of navy personnelmay also be attached.

The Sentinel R1 isinstantly distinguishablefrom a standard GlobalExpress by the large canoefairing under the forward

tations,” said TomKennedy, Raytheon’s vice-president, airbornesystems, in a pre-Farnborough interview.“It’s a transformationalsystem and it will give theUK Ministry of Defence asignificant capability foron-demand ISR.”

The programme was stillon track, he added, to meetthe planned November2006 in-service date. Crewsare now being trained onthe system’s workstations inthe UK and US.

In response to sugges-tions that much ofSentinel’s work could behandled by unmanned airvehicles (UAVs), Kennedyargues that the muchgreater man-in-the-loopcapability given by theaircraft provides acommand and control nodein the sky and aids dissemi-nation of data.

fuselage that houses theheart of the aircraft’s capa-bi l i ty, an active-array,synthetic aperture radar /ground moving targetindicator (SAR/GMTI). Theother giveaway is thesatellite communicationsradome atop the forwardfuselage.

Work is now continuingwith the full avionics suite

and detailed engineeringtests are being undertaken,including proving that theradar and associatedequipment work ‘as adver-t ised’ from a variety ofangles and altitudes.

“We will be showingsome imagery from theSAR at the show. Theimagery is looking greatand meeting all our expec-

Both the Sentinel R1 and its associated ground stationare on display in the static park.

AgustaWestland is set tounveil more details of a new7.5t multirole helicopterduring Farnborough, hot onthe heels of securing a majorcontract from the UKMinistry of Defence (MoD)to supply Future Lynx heli-copters to the British Armyand Royal Navy.

Development of theAW149 twin-engine helic-opter, alongside the Future Lynx agreement, will transform the fortunes of AgustaWestland’s Yeoviloperation. As part of arestructuring AgustaWestlandhas confirmed that it is relo-cating its military helicopterdivision to the UK.

Potential applications forthe AW149 include battle-field support, commandand control, medevacmissions and combat searchand rescue. AgustaWestland

says the aircraft will becapable of carrying up to 16troops and will be armedwith rocket launcher tubesand have the ability tocarry air-to-ground and air-to-air missiles. The aircraftwill have a range of 400nm(740km) and a maximumcruise speed of 165kt(300km/h).

No details of funding or a

proposed in-service datehave been released, but theUK government is likely tobe asked to provide somemoney toward develop-ment costs.

The £1 billion FutureLynx deal is equally pivotalfor AgustaWestland, withthe long-expected confir-mation that the BritishArmy has ordered 40 Future

New AgustaWestland twin to be unveiledLynx, while the Royal Navywill take 30 aircraft. Thedeal, announced in the run-up to Farnborough, is thefirst to be awarded under astrategic partnership initia-tive between the UK MoDand AgustaWestland.

The agreement includes10 options, split equallybetween the army andNavy, with aircraft due tobe in service from 2014.AgustaWestland says itexpects first flight of theFuture Lynx in 2009 withinitial deliveries in 2011.

The aircraft will bepowered by two LHTECCTS800 engines each ratedat 1,015kW (1,361shp)giving greatly enhanced hotand high performance andsingle engine performanceover existing army andnavy Lynx helicopters.

Current MoD Lynx arepowered by Rolls-Royce Gemengines. The replacementCTS800 engines will provide 36% more power.AgustaWestland says it hasbuilt in survivability to theFuture Lynx design withfeatures including crash-worthy and armoured crew seating, crashworthypassenger seating, ‘role fit’armoured cabin floor, wirestrike protection system, aproven Integrated DefensiveAids Suite and an engineInfra-Red Suppression (IRS)system on the army aircraft.

Aleniabullish for C-27ordersAlenia Aeronautica isconfident of notchingup more Boeing C-27Jorders this year, and isalso pushing for Italy tohost a final assemblyand check-out facilityfor the F-35 Joint Striker Fighter (JSF)programme.

Alenia chief executiveGiovanni Bertolone saysthat the company ispursuing five “hot”commercial campaignsfor the C27-J, includingthe joint cargo aircraft(JCA) for the US Armyand Air Force. “I defi-nitely think that beforethe year end we willhear about our aircraftagain,” predictsBertolone.

Alenia has teamed upwith L-3 Communicationsand Boeing to offer theC27-J for the 33-strongJCA requirement, and isup against LockheedMartin‘s C-130J and aRaytheon/EADS Casaproposal for either theCN-235 or larger C-295.

Alenia secured a €75million ($93.8 million)order from Lithuania forthree C-27Js in early July.

StrongIn putting Italy

forward for a JSF plant,Bertolone also makes itclear that he thinks “it isin Lockheed Martin’sinterest to assure astrong European foot-print for the JSFprogramme.”

“As we are still innegotiations, there arestill issues to be resolved,but I am certain that afinal assembly andcheck-out line located inItaly would be the bestsolution for the Italianand European airforces.”

Alenia will be assem-bling 50% of the JSFwing as part of an agree-ment hammered outwith Lockheed Martinand other partners, andBertolone comments:“For us, it represents avery importantprogramme, especially ifall the interested partiesinteract smoothly, thoseparties being thenations that are inter-ested in ordering the F-35, Lockheed Martinand the partner

companies collaboratingin the project.”

Laser JDAM hitsmoving targetin F-16 testBoeing has announced asuccessful test of its newLaser Joint Direct AttackMunition (LJDAM), whichsuccessfully hit a movingArmoured Personnel Carriertarget on June 30 afterrelease from a USAF F-16flying at 20,000ft.

“Development is on ournickel. The USAF suppliedthe F-16, but the mostfocused primary customeris the US Navy,” a Boeing source told Flight Daily News.

The laser spot producedby the targeting pod canbe used to update theLaser JDAM’s GPS,predicting the position ofa moving target , andallowing the weapon toengage at the ‘last, best’co-ordinates even if thelaser spot is lost.

“Laser JDAM’s perform-ance continues to exceedour highest expectations.The weapon has the flexi-bility to engage both fixedand moving targets andwill fill a significant gap incapabil i ty currentlyencountered by ourwarfighting customers,”said programme managerScott Van Dyke.

Boeing expects tocomplete development ofthe LJDAM in 2006, andinitial production deliverieswill begin in 2007.

The Future Lynx deal is good news for AgustaWestland.

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