Defence Business: Wherefore art thou Romeo? | ADM Nov 2010
It was time for the inevitable Romeo headline pun.
US Naval Base Coronado in San Diego is home to HSM-71 and HSM-41, the operational and training squadrons respectively for the newest addition in the US Navy’s (USN) naval aviation capability.
But how are they training and performing thus far?
Katherine Ziesing | San Diego and Canberra
“There are three major type commands in the USN: aviation, surface warfare and sub-surface warfare,” USN Captain Jeff Hughes, deputy commander, Helicopter Maritime Strike Wing Pacific Fleet, said.
“There are two distinct helicopter communities within Naval Aviation: the HSM [Romeo] and HSC [Helicopter Sea Combat – the Sierra] communities.
“With those two communities we have four type wings.
“Our role as a type wing is to organise, man, train and equip as well as provide overall community policy, guidance and advocacy.”
Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron Seven One (HSM-71) is a USN helicopter squadron based at Naval Air Station North Island, San Diego, California.
Nicknamed the ‘Raptors’, they are attached to Carrier Air Wing Nine (CVW-9) and deploy aboard the USS John C. Stennis (CVN-74).
The squadron was formed on October 4, 2007 and was the first fleet squadron to receive the MH-60R Seahawk (Romeo).
Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron 41 (HSM-41) is the USN’s Fleet Replacement Squadron dedicated to training new MH-60R pilots and aircrew.
When commissioned on January 21, 1983, as Helicopter Anti-Submarine Light 41 (HSL-41) it was the USN’s first Light Airborne Multi-Purpose System (LAMPS) MK III squadron and flew the Sikorsky SH-60B (Bravo) helicopter.
HSL-41 trained pilots and aircrew for the west coast HSL squadrons in San Diego, Hawaii, and Japan.
On December 8, 2006, HSL-41 changed its name from Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron Light 41 to Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron 41.
In February 2008, HSM-41 surpassed 140,000 flight hours without a major aircraft incident and celebrated its 25th anniversary.
The HSM-41 Seahawks have trained HSM-71’s Raptor pilots, crew and even maintainers.
At HSM-41, there’s even a RAN sailor, Lieutenant Eugene Cleary, who in the early stages of converting from his former 817 Squadron Sea Kings to the Romeo.
He is three months into his three-year posting where he will later become an instructor, teaching USN pilots on the Romeo.
LEUT Cleary is settling into the rapid pace of training, commenting that his conversion here, which will take three to four months, would take the better part of a year in Australia.
The scale of the training facility available at Coronado in terms of simulators, people and available training helicopters is truly impressive.
A bank of four simulators (one full motion and three static), operating from 7am until midnight every day, provides 68 hours a day of training time.
Since HSM-41 trains over 100 pilots a year (and over 50 aircrew), prospective USN pilots will spend 20 hours in a sim before touching a real aircraft.
While the sims are not able to be linked at the moment, plans are afoot to provide this capability within the year.
Conversion for qualified pilots depends on the experience of the individual but Commander Shaun McAndrew, the XO at HSM-41, is proud of their ever-increasing rate of effort.
“We also train the tactical officers here,” CDR McAndrew explained to ADM.
“We offer the whole training package just across the road from HSM-71.”
When Australian media visited Coronado in August, the USN was very clear that they would not talk about any competition happening in Australia.
But when it came to expounding their love of the Romeo, there was no hesitation.
The successes of the Raptors at RIMPAC 2010 and first deployment aboard the USS John C. Stennis carrier group were also a proud point for the USN pilots and crew.
There were two Romeos aboard a DDG during RIMPAC this year that performed a range of missions.
Commander Tripp Hardy, commanding officer of the USS Sampson (DDG 102), was particularly impressed by the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities of the Romeo compared to its predecessor.
CDR Hardy said the Romeo wouldn’t see a change in tactics per se but it would be a “faster and more effective asset in a battle group scenario thanks to its improved systems”.
USN rollout
Further Romeos are being rolled out around USN bases.
At the current Bravo replacement rate, CAPT Hughes hopes to have more Romeos than Bravos in his inventory this time next year.
The transition on the east coast is also moving at a similarly rapid pace.
“The number of commands we have at the moment is growing and will continue to grow,” CAPT Hughes said.
“Currently we have 17 commands, 15 total squadrons with three Squadrons assigned to Carrier Air Wings; which will ultimately grow to 10 Air Wing Squadrons.
“We hope to have 23 commands spread between the East and West coasts once all the new platforms come into service.
“Each Carrier Air Wing will have both a Romeo and Sierra squadron.”
Captain Hughes confirmed that the USN was about a third of the way through the Romeo transition and two thirds of the way through their Sierra transition.
In the primary Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) mission, the Romeo deploys from the parent ship to classify, localise, and potentially attack a suspected submarine threat detected by the ship's towed-array sonar, hull-mounted sonar, or by other internal or external sources.
The aircraft is capable of fully independent and/or coordinated ASW operations and can localise and classify sub-surface threats as well as engage them with an array of homing torpedoes.
When used in a Surface Warfare (SUW) mission, the aircraft provides a mobile, elevated platform for observing, identifying, and localising threat platforms beyond the parent ship's radar and/or electronic support measure (ESM) horizon.
When a suspected threat is detected, classification and targeting data is provided to the parent ship via Hawklink (a Tactical Common Data Link, TCDL) for surface-to-surface weapon engagement.
The Hawklink, developed jointly by Harris Corporation and BAE Systems, enables data, imagery, electronic support measures, communications, and radar information gathered by the helicopter's sensors to be multiplexed and transmitted in excess of 100nm to the host ship via the data link.
“When we fielded the expanded Hawklink, we will be able to push so much more information, between the aircraft and ship,” CAPT Hughes said.
“And that’s alongside a Link 16 capability.
“Both links are equally useful but in different ways for different people.
“It gives us two different but complementary information paths that allows us have better communications flow and synchronisation across numerous assets, particularly in a carrier group context.”
CAPT Hughes is also happy with the data fusion capability offered in the Romeo, given the wide array of information that is coming from both aircraft and shipboard sensors.
Pilots and aircrew are able to ‘dig down’ into the different layers of information gathered and make war-fighting and tactical decisions from there.
“A lot of work has been done in this area to make the information as clear and easy to use as possible, and this really shows in the interface.”
Hellfire missile equipped aircraft may conduct independent or coordinated attack, depending upon the threat and tactical scenario, primarily in the littoral context.
The Romeo can also be equipped with the MK 54 torpedo.
In the vertical replenishment (VERTREP) mission, the aircraft is able to transfer material and personnel between ships, or between ship and shore.
In the search and rescue (SAR) mission, the aircraft is designed to search for and locate a particular target/object/ship or plane and to rescue personnel using the rescue hoist.
In the medical evacuation (MEDEVAC) mission, the aircraft provides for the medical evacuation of ambulatory and litter-bound patients.
In the naval gunfire support (NGFS) mission, the aircraft provides a platform for spotting and controlling naval gunfire from either the parent ship or other units.
“We are all about the end-to-end solution in a network centric command environment,” CAPT Hughes said.
“Detection, identification, classification and attack if needs be.
“Our mission roles in the kill chain are find, fix and finish.
“And we do that for either ASW or SUW missions.”
Maintainability
There have been some questions on how quickly the Romeo can be reconfigured between these different mission roles.
But speaking to maintainers at Coronado, they are more than happy with the current situation in that regard.
“Based on the maintenance cards that Sikorsky gives us, that type work takes about three to four hours, depending on the skill level of a team of four technicians,” Petty Officer First Class Chris Caruso, a senior Romeo maintainer, told ADM.
Once the Romeo has been reconfigured from secondary missions back to its primary missions, it can take four to six hours to conduct spot checks and tests to make sure the new mission role configuration is correct and all systems are good to go again.
“The maintenance gear from Sikorsky really helps us do our jobs safely and quickly, even in high sea states,” PO Caruso said.
There have also been questions about the corrosion factor of the airframe given the all-metal construction that does not use composites.
But since the airframe has been in service since 1984, corrosion hot spots are already well known to Sikorsky and the USN.
“Sikorsky has already applied anti-corrosion preventatives to these spots before we even get the aircraft,” PO Caruso confirmed.
“And we work with them to constantly improve that process for future designs and corrosion prep work.
“It hasn’t been a huge issue for us at all, compared to older aircraft.”
PO Caruso spoke highly of the ease of maintenance of the Romeo compared to legacy aircraft, as many components are more accessible for removal and replacement than they were previously.
Having worked on the various iterations of the airframe for over 15 years, PO Caruso is very happy with the way the Romeo has evolved.
“From a maintenance point of view, Sikorsky has worked really hard over that time to make my life as easy as possible,” he laughed.
CAPT Hughes also confirmed that the reliability of the Romeo, both at sea on and base, is higher than that of the Bravos at a comparable stage.
The author travelled to San Diego as a guest of Lockheed Martin.
MK 54 for potential Romeo
The US Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress on October 7 of a possible Foreign Military Sale to the Government of Australia of up to 200 MK 54 All-Up-Round Torpedoes, 179 MK 54 Flight in Air Material Kits, 10 MK 54 Exercise Sections, 10 MK 54 Exercise Fuel Tanks, 10 MK 54 Dummy Torpedoes and 6 MK 54 Ground Handling Torpedoes.
The estimated cost is US$169 million.
The possible sale also includes support and test equipment to upgrade Intermediate Maintenance Activity to MK 54 capability, spare and repair parts, technical data and publications, personnel training and training equipment, US government and contractor engineering, technical and logistics support services, and other related elements of logistics support.
Australia intends to use the MK 54 torpedo on the Lockheed/Sikorsky MH-60R helicopter, if it is selected under the Air 9000 Phase 8 competition against the European NFH.
Australia has significant experience with modern weapons systems, particularly the MK 46 Mod 5 (SW) torpedo.
The MK 54 torpedo is an upgrade of the MK 46 torpedo.