Project CH CAP, or Chinook (CH-47F) Capability Alignment
Program, to give its full title is dedicated to ensuring Army’s seven new
Boeing CH-47Fs remain aligned with the larger US Army fleet through to Life Of
Type.
The CH-47F will replace Army’s existing seven older CH-47D
Chinooks in the next couple of years, under Project Air 9000 Phase 5C. The
original fleet of five CH-47Ds has recently been bolstered by two second hand
ex-US Army examples under Air 9000 Phase5D and an eighth was lost on an operational
accident in Afghanistan in May 2011.
Retaining commonality with a much larger US fleet brings obvious
advantages in terms of logistics support, such as the availability of spare
parts and other resources when deployed on coalition operations, and this has
also been one of the tenets of CH-47D operations over the years.
Keeping the new ‘Foxtrot’ Chinooks common with their American
brethren is not an easy task however: The United States Army is in the process
of acquiring at least 464 CH-47Fs over almost a 10-year period from 2006. The
long production run means that, as improvements and modifications are made on
the assembly line, each batch of helicopters differ slightly from the rest.
Also, Australia’s Chinooks operate closely with our own Special Forces and the
new helicopters will undoubtedly see the incorporation of some sovereign
capabilities and requirements, both as part of the acquisition project, Air 9000
Phase 5C, and after the benefit of operational experience.
Air
9000 Ph 5C
Phase 5C is the latest in a series of sub-phases designed to
address what Defence terms ‘current and future deficiencies in the Chinook
weapons system’.
The first of these, Phase 5A, replaced the Honeywell T55-GA-712
engines of the then-existing CH-47D fleet with the with the more powerful,
Full-Authority Digital Engine Control T55-GA-714A units and also added beefed
up transmission and drive train systems, which are identical to those in the
new-build CH-47F. This not only improved performance, particularly in the ‘hot
and high’ conditions experienced in Afghanistan, but was also estimated to save
$28 million in through-life support costs.
A further phase, 5B, was then intended to remanufacture the
CH-47D fleet to ‘Foxtrot’ standards and an earlier iteration of Phase 5C would
coincidentally oversee the acquisition of three CH-47Fs, to bring the fleet up
to a total of nine units.
Funding for Phase 5B had been allocated in the 2007 Defence
Capability Plan, with a projected a Year of Decision in 2008/9 and an
in-service date to have occurred somewhere between 2010 and 2012. In the event,
Phases 5B and 5C were combined into a new Phase 5C in the 2009 Defence
Capability Plan, which would seek to acquire seven new-build CH-47Fs and
dispense with the older ‘Delta’ fleet.
According to the 2009 DCP, the new Phase 5C, “Ensures the ADF
has a viable future Chinook helicopter capability, which is aligned to the US
Army configuration and support systems throughout its Life Of Type’, and therefore
heralded the CH CAP in its current form.
On April 13 2009, the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency
(DSCA) advised a possible Foreign Military Sales to the Government of Australia
of seven CH-47F helicopters and other related equipment, services and support.
The estimated cost of the potential contract was list at US$560 million.
Included in the proposed sale were 14 T55-GA-714A engines, 7
Dillon Aero M134D miniguns, 16 AN/ARC-201D Single Channel Ground and Airborne
Radios (SINCGARS), 7 Force XXI Battle Command Brigade and Below Blue Force
Trackers (FBCB2/BFT), and two spare engines.
In May 2009, then-Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon announced
that the deal would go ahead, saying: “Operations in our region will require
the rapid movement of land combat forces across dispersed operational areas,
which will continue to place a heavy demand on our medium lift helicopter
capability, particularly in areas of rugged or high terrain, heavy vegetation and
challenging roads and airfields.”
Fitzgibbon also noted that the Australian CH-47Fs would be to
the same configuration as US Army helicopters, more than 450 of which were then
on order.
“These aircraft will have improved Electronic Warfare
Self-Protection systems and maintenance arrangements which will increase their
operational effectiveness and employability across the battlefield. In addition,
keeping them at the US standard allows Australia to take advantage of the most
cost effective development, engineering, training, and spares support systems by
leveraging off the US Army systems.”
Second Pass approval followed in February 2010 at which point
Senator John Faulkner, who had by then assumed the role of Defence Minister,
advised that the Life of Type would be set at 2040.
Faulkner also noted that the aircraft would be procured and
maintained in the same broad configuration as the United States Army Chinooks,
arguably a step back from the identical configuration originally touted, but
flagged Australia’s potential involvement in the US Chinook Product Improvement
Program, to align Army’s CH-47Fs with the US Army configuration.
The announcement, which also included the purchase of two
simulators, predicted an in-service date for the first two helicopters in 2014,
with all seven to have been delivered by 2017.
In January 2012, Boeing was awarded a US Army contract worth
$US370 million for 14 CH-47F Chinooks – one for the US Army itself, six for the
United Arab Emirates and seven for Australia. By now however, Defence was
quoting an in-service date for the first two in 2016, with deliveries to be
completed in 2018.
CH
CAP
With the acquisition of the seven CH-47Fs taken care of by Phase
5C, attention has now turned to the question of just how close to the US
configuration Australia’s Chinooks are likely to be, and how they will be
maintained in this condition. Accordingly, the Chinook Capability Alignment
Program (CH CAP) was formed as yet a further sub-phase of Project Air 9000 and
first appeared in the DCP released in December 2010.
“CH CAP will ensure ongoing configuration alignment of the ADF
CH-47F Chinook helicopters, being acquired under Air 9000 Phase 5C, with the US
Army CH-47F Chinook fleet. The Air 9000 CH CAP will be the first in a series of
projects that plans to make progressive modifications and upgrades to the ADF
CH-47F Chinook over its life of type,” a spokesperson for the Project Office
outlined to ADM.
“The goal of Air 9000 CH CAP is to ensure that the CH-47F
Chinook remains a supportable, viable and cost effective system in the future
strategic and threat environment.”
With delivery of the helicopters themselves set to occur between
2016 and 2018, the CH CAP will need to be in place to immediately follow on
from this phase. Acquisition cost for this first tranche is estimated to be
somewhere between $100-$300 million.
One of the first questions to address however, may well be; what
is the common US Army configuration? Without detailed information from Boeing
regarding the subtle production differences referred to earlier it is hard to
determine just how standard all 464 under the current program of record are
likely to be.
Certainly, Australia’s aircraft will come off the production
line to the latest standard, but will this be the same configuration that many
of the earlier US helicopters are in, particularly with the benefit of several years’
operational use in Afghanistan by then?
And then of course there are the Army specific modifications,
required to comply not only with the ADF airworthiness regime, but for the operationally-specific
(and often classified) roles in which they will operate. These roles, involving
Australian Special Forces, will almost certainly differ from those performed by
US Chinooks in support of their own special units.
“Australia’s CH-47F will be US Army common from the outset, but
with a small number of ADF unique post-production modifications and mission
equipment enhancements delivered as part of the Air9000 Phase 5C acquisition
project,” the Project Office confirmed.
“Air 9000 CH CAP is the first in a planned series of CH CAP
iterations (CH CAP2, CH CAP3, etc), which will be aimed at ensuring configuration
alignment of the ADF CH-47F Chinook fleet with the US Army’s CH-47F Chinook
over its life of type. The US Army operates the largest fleet of Chinook
helicopters in the world so configuration alignment offers significant through
life support cost savings and ensures interoperability with coalition partners.”
US
alignment
The CH CAP is also intended to be closely aligned to the US Army
Chinook development path and may also include a formal buy-in to the US upgrade
program, which will see Australia contributing to the Non-Recurring Engineering
(NRE) costs for equipment and will provide the ADF with critical data and
design information to allow the changes to be incorporated in Army’s seven
aircraft in the future.
The full scope of CH CAP will include ongoing modifications and
upgrades to mission, support and training systems in line with those undertaken
by the US Army on their own fleet.
This process will include both hardware and software updates and
modifications and will address future obsolescence issues and also provide what
the project office refers to as ‘capability enhancements’ throughout its
operational career. These enhancements will come as a result of the shared
operational experience with the helicopter in the changing environment of the
modern battlespace, and are therefore difficult to predict in advance.
With this in mind it is therefore also difficult to predict how,
where or by whom many of these iterations of the CH CAP will be carried out,
but Defence says that its intention is to introduce the upgrades to the fleet
using the using standard in-service engineering, logistic and maintenance
processes which will be in place when the helicopters begin operational service
in 2016.
Without the benefit of a crystal ball it is further difficult to
predict whether the complexity and volume of future work associated with each
modification and upgrade is capable of being carried out in house by Army, or
contracted to industry.
Because the project is largely systems based, the Project
Offices notes there are unlikely to be any facilities and infrastructure requirements,
but there may be opportunities for industry to compete for some elements of the
Through Life Support.
First Pass Approval for the CH CAP was coincidental with that of
Phase 5C and according to the 2012 DCP, a Year of Decision will occur sometime
between now and 2014, with an Initial Operating Capability to follow in the
2016-2017 timeframe and will be achieved before the CH-47F deliveries are
completed in 2018.
IOC in this case is defined as a deployable troop of two
aircraft with the CAP upgrades installed and accepted into service. Final Operating
Capability will follow when the full scope of these initial modifications are
delivered and accepted into operational service.
By then of course, CAP2 (at
least) will be either in the final stages of planning or well underway and the
CAP process will no doubt be a moving feast up until the Planned Withdrawal
Date in 2040.
