Following on from ADM’s look at Boeing CH-47F Chinook sustainment from an industry perspective in the November issue, we turn our focus this issue to the Army viewpoint.
The CH-47F plays a crucial battlefield mobility role in support of ADF operations, but it also has an important role to play in Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) operations within Australia and our immediate region.
Although the Foxtrot model Chinook has only been in Australian Army service since 2015, 10 helicopters are in service with the 5th Aviation Regiment (5 AVN) at Townsville and the type has already made its first deployment overseas, when three aircraft participated in Operation PNG Assist, post-earthquake HADR operations. The Chinook fleet also participated in flood relief operations in north-west Queensland in 2019 and by early November 2019, when these words were written, the fleet has already accumulated almost 8,000 flying hours.
From an Army perspective, CH-47F sustainment is overseen by the Cargo Helicopter and Unmanned Surveillance Project Office (CHUSPO), which works very closely with industry to deliver the capability to the ADF.
Chinook Recap
The Commonwealth originally purchased seven Boeing CH-47F Chinooks via a Foreign Military Sales (FMS) contract under Project Air 9000 Phase 5C, which gained Second Pass approval in May 2010. Deliveries to Townsville began in 2014, IOC achieved in December 2015, with FOC following in July 2017.
In the meantime, three additional aircraft were acquired under Land 4502 Phase 1, a program which received government approval in March 2016 and, such was the rapid acquisition nature of the project, the aircraft were delivered just three months later.
The additional helicopters were originally intended for the US Army, but diverted off Boeing’s production line in Philadelphia for the Australian Army. As such they differ slightly from the original seven helicopters, primarily in the fact that they are not fitted with a rotor brake (desired for shipboard operations) and because of the modifications required to bring them up to the same standard as the seven aircraft earlier delivered, FOC for Land 4502/1 will not occur until 2021.
The Planned Withdrawal Date (PWD) is currently set at 2040 for the fleet and, as of October 17, 2019, the fleet and notched up 7,795 flying hours – 395 of which were embarked hours, accumulated since the First Of Class Flight Trials (FOCFT) in 2016.
“Our target rate of effort for the 2019-2020 fiscal year is 2,400 airframe hours and we will progress to our mature rate of effort of 2,600 hours in 2021,” explained CHUSPO director, Colonel James Allen to ADM. “We have progressively built up those hours to achieve to achieve that mature state.”
CHUSPO
The CHUSPO is, as its name suggests, also overseeing Army’s unmanned systems projects, but Chinook is managed under the Cargo Helicopter Management Unit, which provides engineering and logistics support and overall governance of the program.
Because the helicopters have been acquired through the FMS process, there are also some elements of Chinook sustainment which fall under this methodology.
“The beauty of that is, because we have a relatively small fleet of 10 aircraft, we are able to use the FMS arrangements through the US Army to enjoy significant economies of scale, by leveraging off their much larger fleet,” COL Allen added.
“We maintain very close configuration alignment with the US Army’s CH-47Fs and this is proving to be quite a successful strategy for us. Things like rolling out software releases and publications amendments work well for us, because we haven’t diverted significantly from the US configuration and so we don’t have to rework data that comes from the OEM.”
The intent for Australia is to stick with that philosophy through the life of the program and Defence also intends to align itself with the US Army’s future CH-47F Block Upgrade Program.
Industry relationships
Colonel Allen says that CHUSPO has an “excellent relationship” with Boeing Defence Australia (BDA) and points to the recently-signed CH-47 Integrated Support Services (CISS) contract between the two parties, which became effective on September 1, 2018 for an initial five-year period, as an example of co-operation with industry.
“The CISS contract provides a combination of support activities, but predominantly deeper maintenance support to the Regiment in Townsville, but also training support in Townsville and also at Oakey and they also support CHUSPO in Brisbane, in terms of engineering and logistics support and their reach-back to the OEM in Philadelphia,” COL Allen explained to ADM.
“That has been a great success – particularly the blended (uniformed/civilian) workforce in Townsville, which provides excellent support to the Regiment, providing them not only the deeper maintenance support but the flexibility to use them to meet unit demand by providing operational maintenance support when required.”
Colonel Allen also highlighted the work Collins Aerospace is providing in support of the CH-47Fs avionics systems, CAE in terms of simulator support and US company Columbia Helicopters, which performs major component repair and overhaul services for items including the engines and gearboxes.
“I think we have a really good blend of industry and in-house support, which is working very well,” COL Allen added. “We have great relationships with all of those organisations, delivering excellent results.”
The CH-47F has a 400-hour maintenance cycle, with scheduled inspections occurring every 100 hours, so the fourth 100-hour event is the deeper maintenance visit. Army currently runs one deeper level line at Townsville, but will open a second this year, to support the mature rate of effort.
Embarkation and modifications
One of the Chinooks major operational roles is to embark in one of Navy’s Landing Helicopter Dock (LHD) vessels as part of an integrated Air Combat Element (ACE), in support of amphibious operations. The Australian Army is one of the leading users of the helicopter in the embarked role.
It is with this role in mind that the initial seven helicopters were delivered with a rotor brake system and, as noted, the three additional machines acquired under Land 4502/1 will receive this modification before they are able to deploy aboard ship. The fleet is also modified with undercarriage mooring rings to facilitate securing them on the ship’s deck.
From a maintenance perspective, COL Allen says a robust Corrosion Protection Plan (CPP) was implemented early in the helicopter’s service life to mitigate the effects of the salt-laden amphibious operating environment.
“This includes preventative activities and we also have a detailed tracking system, which keeps tabs on how long each individual tail number is exposed at any given time,” he explained. “And certainly, during some of our deeper maintenance servicings we pay particular attention to corrosion inspections and we are always looking at trend analysis to play a role in continuously improving the CPP.”
CWOW & CHCAP
Australia is a member of the Chinook Worldwide Operators Workshop (CWOW), which is essentially a CH-47 user group that meets biannually and includes Canada, the Netherlands, the US and UK and, as the OEM, Boeing also sits in on the workshops.
“We collaborate on identifying those common longer-term capability improvements that we would like to see, so we can engage as a collective and inform Boeing of those improvements we seek throughout the service life of the aircraft,” COL Allen said. “It is of benefit to have a common voice and I think it’s of great assistance to Boeing, to understand collective demands, rather than having each nation approach them individually.”
Defence is also beginning to define a future Cargo Helicopter Capability Assurance Program (CH CAP), that will consider a series of modifications aimed at keeping the Chinook fleet supportable through to life of type and maximises interoperability by maintaining configuration alignment with the US Army as closely as possible.
“The best example of what we are considering is the CH-47’s Electronic Warfare (EW) system. As EW systems continue to evolve and for us to continue to deploy into high-threat environments,” COL Allen said. “There also may be other modifications that are required due to obsolescence of components, so the CH CAP is really about making sure that we stay ahead of the game and looking forward to keep Chinook as effective and supportable as possible.
“We look at Chinook from every angle as a good news story. The procurement activity was successful and well-supported under the FMS program and also by our industry partners. We have introduced the aircraft into service and matured the support systems and we are well-placed to achieve that mature rate of effort of 2,600 hours next year. We are now looking forward to making sure we embed all the good work we’ve done,” COL Allen concluded.
This article first appeared in the February 2020 edition of ADM.