In the Defence, Foreign Affairs & Trade Senate Estimates hearing on 9 November, Chief of Air Force Air Marshal Robert Chipman defended the selection of the Lockheed C-130J-30 Hercules as the RAAF’s future Medium Air Mobility Aircraft (MAMA).
In answer to questions about why the C-130J was selected as what Defence Minister Richard Marles’ press release referred to as “the only option that meets all of Australia’s capability requirements”, AM Chipman reiterated that the Hercules was the clear winner.
AM Chipman also stated that the Airbus A400M, Embraer C-390 Millennium, and Kawasaki C-2 were also evaluated.
“We had a look at those four aircraft over 22 different requirements. They related to aircraft performance, certification across the roles in which we expect to utilise the aircraft and the ease with which we might transition the aircraft into service,” he testified.
However, AM Chipman provided no details of what the 22 requirements were and as ADM reported, Defence did not address specific questions regarding how the analysis was conducted.
At an industry briefing for aircraft sustainment under the MAMA (Air 7404 Phase 1) program held in Canberra on 2 December, Defence revealed that a “number of manufacturers” were approached via a Request for Information (RFI) in 2021 and the merits of each aircraft were assessed against Australia’s capability requirements.
As Australia was in COVID lockdown for much of 2021 and overseas travel extremely restricted, the evaluation would seem to have been – at best – a paper exercise. While Air Force no doubt has a good understanding of the C-130Js performance, having operated it since 1999, the other three contenders appear to have been judged solely by a desktop exercise. ADM is unaware of any official visits to Spain, Brazil or Japan during the assessment period.
While Air Marshal Chipman acknowledged in Senate estimates that a final decision will be made as part of the forthcoming Defence Strategic Review process, it would seem fair to ask why Defence is in such a hurry to replace the existing C-130J fleet with more of the same?
The Planned Withdrawal Date for the current aircraft isn’t until the 2030 timeframe, even without a life extension, so there would appear time to conduct a thorough evaluation of alternatives.
Although the Kawasaki C-2 is only just entering service with the Japan Air Self Defense Force – so far, the only customer – both the A400M and C-390 are already in service and have been selected by a number of nations. It's worth noting also that both the A400M and C-390 are already certified as tankers, capable of hose and drogue refuelling both helicopters and fast jets, with removable role equipment.
While the A400M and C-2 could be argued to be too large for a medium airlift requirement, the C-390 has been designed from the outset to be a C-130 replacement and is now in service with the Brazilian Air Force and has been selected by Portugal, Hungary and the Netherlands.
Portugal and the Netherlands will replace existing (albeit older model) C-130s with C-390s and in the recent Senate Estimates hearing, Liberal Senator David Fawcett pointed out that the latter decided the Brazilian aircraft was superior to the C-130J across a number of criteria.
“I noticed the Dutch Defence Minister, when speaking to their parliament and explaining why they had purchased the Embraer aircraft, said, essentially, that it cost less, was easier to maintain and had more capacity and more availability than the C-130J,” Senator Fawcett said.
The C-390 leverages Embraer’s E190 commercial airliner family, hundreds of which are in service around the world and supported on a 24/7 basis by the OEM. It is powered by IAE V2500 engines, which are modern commercial turbofans also in service in large numbers around the world, including with both Jetstar and Qantas Link in Australia.
During the abovementioned Air 7404 industry briefing local companies were told it was an exciting time for medium air mobility, with an official stating Australia is “on the precipice of a once in a many generation recapitalisation” and they were urged to be a contributor to the C-130J global supply chain. Lockheed Martin has a mature supply chain and in Australia Quickstep is a major success story, building flap assemblies. But as a Foreign Military Sales (FMS) purchase, sustainment will be contracted by the US service lead (in this case the US Air Force) and this has proven a particularly difficult nut for Australian companies to crack to date.
