Military Superiority: MRTT flight trials on track | ADM Jul 2010

The capabilities outlined in the 2000 White Paper are beginning to come together.

Wedgetail, Vigilaire, HFMOD, FFG upgrades and the MRTT are all due to be released into full operational service within the next 18 months.

All have had their challenges but the end is in sight for the MRTT.

Katherine Ziesing | Getafe, Spain

As reported in the March edition of ADM, the MRTT conversion program in Brisbane is going well with conversion of Aircraft Three, the second aircraft to be converted locally, almost complete in Qantas’ Hangar 1 at Brisbane Airport.

Qantas Defence Services (QDS) A330 MRTT program director Scott Harris told ADM the current conversion, which began in October 2009, was running on time, and was expected to be completed early in the third quarter of this year, ahead of production acceptance testing and evaluation.

There were some delays to the program early on, admits Antonio Caramazana, vice president of Airbus Military derivatives, mainly due to the unexpected technical and engineering complexity of enlarging the cockpits space for the military computer specifications.

But these have now been overcome and the conversion program is making gains with every aircraft converted.

The flight test program in Getafe at Airbus Military’s production and test facility is literally signing off elements every week, with boom tests in particular gaining momentum.

A multinational crew is in place for the testing regime with pilots, boomers and engineers from Spain, the UK and the US on hand.

“We’ve made 850 boom contacts with F-16s, E-3F AWACS and MRTT,” Eduardo Cuadrado Garcia, Airbus Military’s chief test pilot told ADM at the end of May, pointing out that the test figures changed week to week as the testing program continued apace.

The boom system is completely fly by wire and while the military cockpit has the latest 3D systems and displays in place for the series of seven cameras (the Boom Enhanced Vision System or BEVS), the system can be operated with 2D displays.

BEVS offers both panoramic and inspection viewpoints for the boomer with Cuadrado joking that a boomer may not be needed in future as the technology advances.

The system is also able to provide day/night and black and white/colour displays with system overlays as needed.

Certification flight tests of small receivers have been completed and certification flight tests of large receivers were almost complete as ADM went to press.

Currently, aircraft 1 and 2 are in flight tests in Spain, aircraft 3 is being converted in Brisbane and aircraft 4 was due to start conversion in Brisbane this month.

Aircraft 2 and 3 are due to be delivered at the end of the year with aircraft 1 delivered later once testing equipment has been removed and the aircraft returned to operational configuration.

But there are still questions as to where the Northrop Grumman Large Aircraft Infrared Countermeasures (LAIRCM) will be installed.

The LAIRCM system is an active countermeasure that defeats the threat missile guidance system by directing a high-intensity modulated laser beam into the missile seeker.

In addition, the LAIRCM system automatically counters advanced IR missile systems with no action required by the crew.

The pilot will simply be informed that a threat missile was detected and jammed.

Whilst the UK’s Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft (FSTA) has clearance under International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITARs) to have the system installed in the UK, Australia has yet to receive such clearance.

FSTA is due to enter service between October 2011 and September 2016, with the existing refuelling ?eets leaving service between November 2010 and August 2016.

These plans and timelines are similar to Australia except for the fact that legacy fleet has already been retired and air to air refuelling is provided by a private contractor, Omega, on ‘power by the hour’ basis.

There seems to be a complete lack of movement on the Australian LAIRCM installation issue as a Defence spokesperson told ADM that they were still “waiting on US State Department installation requirements” for the electronic warfare self-protection system.

Stay tuned.

Disclaimer: The author travelled to Spain as a guest of Airbus Military.