Yet another delay to Air 5428 Phase 1 (Fixed Wing Pilot Training System); this time with the closing date of the long-awaited Request for Tender (RFT) pushed back six weeks from 17 February to 31 March.
As a refresher, Air 5428 will replace the ADF’s separate fixed wing basic and advanced flying training programs with a single system that will take a candidate from flight screening to wings, making significant use of simulation and other synthetic training aids. The successful system is scheduled to graduate its first students in 2017.
Since it first broke surface in 2005, Air 5428 has garnered an unenviable reputation for procrastination, but on this occasion the unexplained extension will have relieved some of the pressure facing the two known bidders for the circa $1.5 billion program in fine-tuning their tender responses over the Christmas/New Year holiday period.
It could also be providing a welcome breathing space for any unannounced bidders although that possibility is diminishing, with Australian Aerospace, Thales Australia and Raytheon all having confirmed to ADM they will not be tendering. Boeing Defence Australia has yet to go public, but it’s not expected to be involved.
Both Boeing and Thales tendered for the interim basic flying training (IBFT) requirement. The six-year, $86 million contract was awarded in May 2011 to BAE Systems Australia, which is now teamed with Beechcraft and CAE in bidding for Air 5428.
This grouping draws together BAE Systems’ training, systems integration and sustainment capabilities with CAE’s simulation, training and support services, and non-exclusive access to Beechcraft’s T-6C Texan II turboprop trainer. See box for more details on the fate of Beechcraft.
Raytheon Australia announced in December 2010 it would bid for Air 5428 in partnership with BAE Systems and the then-Hawker Beechcraft. In doing so the company stressed its role in training RAAF Super Hornet aircrew, providing airborne electronic warfare training services, and its involvement since 2007 in the RAN’s retention and motivation initiative.
However, an arrangement under which the T-6C would be exclusively provided to the team for its Air 5428 bid was overturned by the US Bankruptcy Court in 2012 while Hawker Beechcraft was in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
A new Air 5428 team, with CAE replacing Raytheon, was announced by BAE Systems last September. A Raytheon spokesman confirmed to ADM in early January that the company would not be responding to the Air 5428 RFT.
The second tendering group is headed by Lockheed Martin, with Pilatus providing its PC-21 turboprop and ground-based training systems, and Hawker-Pacific furnishing maintenance and logistics support.
Both of the confirmed bidding primes can draw on the credibility gained from their involvement in successful flight training programs in Australia.
Since 1992 BAE Systems has operated the ADF’s Basic Flight Training School (BFTS) at Tamworth. Using a fleet of Pacific Aerospace CT-4B piston-engine trainers, this provides ab initio training and pilot screening for all ADF pilots together with a range of flight training for the Royal Brunei Air Force, Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF), and the Royal Saudi Air Force.
ADF pilots who graduate from the BFTS are then posted to the RAAF’s No 2 Flight training school at RAAF Pearce for advanced training on the Pilatus PC-9/A.
For their part, Lockheed Martin and its two Air 5428 partners are currently in the seventh year of a 20-year performance-based contract to provide the Pilot Training Basic Wings Course (BWC) to the RSAF, coincidentally also at RAAF Pearce but based on the Pilatus PC-21.
As the training system integrator, Lockheed Martin supplies aircraft, maintenance, simulators, courseware and ground-based instructors to the RSAF’s 130 Squadron at Pearce. RSAF students attend a three-month ground training course in Singapore supported by Lockheed Martin, then undertake nine months of flight training at the Australian facility.
Under Air 5428, the Commonwealth requires a choice of locations to consider for the colocated Pilot Selection Agency and BFTS - RAAF East Sale, and an alternate location of the tenderer’s choosing. ADM suspects that the Commonwealth would like to see the business model behind BAE Systems’ Tamworth site but lacked the opportunity to ask directly for tender quality information.
Tenderers can also propose a combination of Commonwealth and private ownership/private financing of the aircraft, flight training devices, and the learning environment.
Jim Wietzel, Vice President Training and Solutions at Lockheed Martin’s Mission Systems and Training unit, told a briefing in Fort Worth in December that the RFT offered an opportunity for innovation and change.
“So we’re focused around the world-class PC-21 which we think will provide great flexibility to the Commonwealth over the life of this contract; they’ll need a platform and a team and a capability that can evolve with the Commonwealth’s needs over two-plus decades.”
Echoing this theme, Rob Oliver, Director, Defence and Government for Pilatus Australia, pointed out that the PC-21 had already been selected by Switzerland, the RSAF, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Qatar and was at the start of its design life.
“There’s spare real estate in the aircraft, growth in the avionics and in the computing; it’s been designed for 21st Century military pilot training,” Oliver said.
The PC-21’s flexible architecture would ensure the necessary synergies with the upgrades to the RAAF’s Hawk lead-in fighter fleet being carried out under Air 5438, he added, while stressing the importance of Hawker Pacific’s experience in PC-21 engineering support.
Wienzl pointed to the team’s performance to date with the BWC as an indication that its 5428 bid would be “very, very low risk”.
“We believe we’ve performed exceptionally well, the Singaporeans certainly recognise that internally. We’ve produced over 40,000 flight hours and 20,000 simulator hours for the program to date, and simulator availability has been 100 per cent.”
BAE Systems Australia declined the opportunity to discuss the merits of its proposals, but John Quaife, the company’s General Manager Aviation Solutions, said last September that the combination of BAE Systems, Beechcraft and CAE would offer the ADF a strong and experienced team that could deliver the Commonwealth a low risk, value for money solution.
Quaife pointed out that the T-6C, designed to meet the needs of undergraduate pilot training for the US, Canada and other NATO air forces, had amassed more than 2 million flying hours and had proven its ability as a versatile, cost-effective platform.
