Ongoing successful delivery of two contracts under which Toll Helicopters provides civilian rotorcraft capability to Army has provided impetus to a company submission to the 2022 Defence Strategic Review for a Whole-of-Government Rotary Wing Program (WOG-RW).
Both Toll contracts were recently extended by two years to mid-2025. One contract provides an Army aeromedical and crash response capability, using two Bell 412 helicopters at the Army Aviation Training Centre at Oakey and one Leonardo AW 139 at Robertson Barracks in Darwin.
And under the Army Commercial Helicopter (ACH) contract – signed in February 2021 and also known as Plan Corella – Toll Helicopters provides, maintains and supports two civil-registered Leonardo AW 139s serving within B Squadron, 5th Aviation Regiment at Townsville. These deliver Army pilot and aircrew training, general utility support to Defence, and have also been involved in flood relief.
In his introduction to the Strategic Review submission, Colin Gunn, General Manager Toll Helicopters and a former Army helicopter pilot, explained the proposed model was an expansion of the ACH program, to include support to broader Defence and Government agencies with ongoing requirements for rotary wing aviation (but excluding existing state-based emergency and policing capabilities).
An opportunity existed for Defence and Federal Government agencies to come together to share critical and expensive non-combat rotary wing capabilities around the nation, he wrote.
“This may involve restructuring imminent future projects such as Air 5412 Joint ADF Rescue Service, the stalled Land 2097 Special Operations Helicopter, Army’s current initiative to introduce a genuine Army Reserve aviation capability, and could be leveraged to also provide more holistic support to the Australian Border Force Future Maritime Surveillance Capability.”
The company had identified possibilities in which disparate Defence and government helicopter contracts could be agglomerated to “provide vastly improved value for money and more efficient use of airframes, crews and flying hours,” Gunn wrote.
This construct would enable a helicopter capability to be provided through a ‘Capability as a Service’ model to Defence and government users, via a centrally coordinated fleet for optimal efficiency.
Operational coordination of the aircraft fleet, in the mature capability comprising 16 to 20 helicopters, would be via an inter-agency coordination centre led by industry, or if preferred, by a government agency.
“The model proposes a single CASA Air Operating Certificate (AOC) holder facilitating the network in a Prime role, responsible for planning and tasking of aircraft, under an agreed prioritisation matrix,” the submission stated.
“The Prime would build and manage an Operations Centre with oversight of in-scope helicopter operations nationally, located proximate to the Commonwealth agency overseeing the capability. To distribute risk and gain maximum capability, the model is amenable to multiple AOC-holder companies (including the Prime) operating the distributed fleet across the country, working to standardised orders, instructions and procedures.
“Government agencies approved to utilise the capability request tasking under the prioritised systems through the Operations Cell. Participating government departments and agencies would be relieved of the need to provide their own coordinating resources and would benefit from use of ‘pooled assets’ to meet their requirements.”
While the WOG-RW procurement methodology could vary between a single omnibus contract with the Prime through to a couple of direct contracts for these services, it would lead to fewer separate services. This would unlock significant savings potential across government with lower contract administration and overhead requirements to addition to shared services enabling lower contract operating costs, Toll says.
Opportunities for smoothing crew hours and airframe usage would be easier to identify and leverage within the improved visibility enabled by the Operations Centre.
“The proposed model has more than 90 per cent of flight hours committed to actual WOG tasking, with just about all training performed in existing domestic simulators,” the submission noted.
Under the ACH program the aircraft can be operated by Toll, Army or mixed crews, and either as a civil or State aircraft operation and ruleset, depending on crewing. Project IOC and FOC had been delivered on time and budget; aircraft had been more capable than expected with greater than 95 per cent availability and used for multiple exercises, including flood assistance.
Air 5412 JARS was seeking value for money (VFM) methodology to evolve the RAAF Search and Rescue contract, an expensive ‘just in case’ service which was not VFM and until recently has rarely provided meaningful support to other Defence units or government agencies (except the Australian Maritime Safety Authority), despite having the clear ability to do so, the submission stated.
“Replacing like-for-like is not VFM, when the ACH program model, supplemented with JARS funding, could fully support a WOG-RW capability, including Army’s current initiative to implement a true Reserve aviation capability.”
The multi-agency, multi-role solution would be managed as a distributed fleet around Australia supporting required readinesss and response times. Personnel support would be from civil crews and reservists with ability for missions to be crewed by Navy or Army as required.
The Toll Helicopters model proposed replicating the model existing in NSW state aeromedical, under which multiple providers operate to a harmonised suite of orders, instructions, and procedures through synchronised Operations Manual Supplements. (In 2017 Toll entered into a 10+5 year contract with the NSW and ACT governments to deliver emergency and rescue helicopter services, along with training support, through to 2032).
Locating the coordination centre in western Sydney as a central location was proposed, although this could also be in Canberra where most Commonwealth user agencies would be headquartered.
Detailed analysis had shown the most appropriate platform to be “the prolific” Leonardo AW139 and associated training systems, which is certified to be transportable in pairs within a C-17 Globemaster for regional disaster support, and is cleared for operations aboard medium and larger vessels.
“With the right distribution, airframes will be self-deployable anywhere in Australia within 24 hours and throughout the South Pacific within 24-48 hours,” the submission stated.
While no official response has been received from Government to the Defence Strategic Review submission, Gunn told ADM he received positive feedback from industry and a number of Defence officials to a concept presentation he delivered at the Land Forces Conference in Brisbane last October.
Discussions with senior Defence and CASG officials following the Defence Strategic Review submission had also proved positive, and Gunn believes the time is now.
“The relentless domestic natural disaster-related commitments of the last three years have led to Army Aviation being focused on everything except combat aviation,” Gunn noted.
“Army aviation have been focused on everything except warfighting for the past three years.
“WOG-RW can provide a clear separation enabling Defence to focus operational effort on high-end military capability, meeting the extraordinary geopolitical threat that has emerged, and freeing valuable uniformed personnel and airframes from necessary but lower-end capability tasks.”