Seahawk upgrade close to production

After a two-year delay resulting in part from delays on other projects, the RAN's Seahawk upgrade project is about to enter the production phase.
The Navy's Seahawk upgrade project, Sea 1405, could enter its production phase as early as this month if a series of final acceptance flight tests of the prototype are completed successfully.

The prototype has completed most of the acceptance tests required to allow full production to go ahead. Aside from a few minor technical issues that need resolution the last major hurdle is a flight test of the Human-Machine Interface (HMI) under night flying conditions. The HMI, including the NVGs and cockpit lighting, has already been tested on the ground.

Tenix Defence's Aerospace Systems Division (formerly Hawker de Havilland Systems Division) was awarded the $200 million contract to upgrade the Seahawks back in April 1997. Project Sea 1405 will see the RAN's entire fleet of 16 Sikorsky S-70B-2 Seahawks equipped with Raytheon's AAQ-27 infra red sensor; Elisra AES-210 ESM system; Northrop Grumman AN/AAR-54(V) Missile Approach Warning System (MAWS) and the BAE Systems ALE-47(V) Counter-Measures Dispensing System (CMDS). In parallel, the RAN's new Kaman SH-2G(A) Super Seasprites will also be equipped with these sensors to capture the logistics and support benefits of equipment commonality.

The Seahawk upgrade also entails an upgrade to the flight simulator at RANAS Nowra to reflect the new configuration and sensor suite as well as to the Seahawk Electronic Systems Support Facility (ESSF) there, and development and delivery of a suite of support systems, including technical manuals, test equipment and spares, and a new software support centre for the EW equipment in JEWOSU at RAAF Base Edinburgh, SA.

The original schedule envisaged prototype completion and testing in 1998 with production to begin in 1999, and final deliveries in 2002. That schedule has blown out due in large part to the close links between the Seahawk upgrade and Super Seasprite projects. The Super Seasprites have experienced lengthy delays associated with the development their Integrated Tactical Avionics System (ITAS); final acceptance is now scheduled for this year, some three years later than planned.

Sources at Tenix and in the RAN have declined to comment but ADM understands that the Super Seasprite was in effect the lead platform for development of things like a common HMI and system software for the new sensors. The delay in the Super Seasprite project, Sea 1411, therefore had a serious knock-on effect on Sea 1405.

The prototype of the upgraded Seahawk first flew in October 2001 and has undergone relatively few design and configuration changes since then, but the final configuration could not be "frozen" while the project team awaited progress on the Super Seasprite.

Recent progress on the Seahawk upgrade is the result of a partial de-coupling of the two projects which has enabled Tenix and the RAN to get on with systems integration and acceptance testing - the ESM and IR sensor have both passed this milestone (the IR sensor, a multiple field of view system operating in the 3-5 micron band, is reported to be very effective) - while the CMDS was tested under live conditions late last year at Beecroft Range near Jervis Bay.

The production schedule will sea all 15 remaining Seahawks upgraded over a period of 31 months, though Tenix is studying plans to telescope the schedule a bit. The work will be carried out at Nowra, where the Commonwealth will also install crash data recorders under a separate work package.

The original plan to equip the Seahawks with a dipping sonar and anti-ship missile capability was dropped back in the late-1990s and never formed part of Tenix's contract. However, both capabilities could form part of the planned Seahawk mid-life upgrade which Navy is now scoping.

The Seahawks are expected to remain in service for at least as long as the RAN's Adelaide-class FFG-7 frigates, the last of which will retire in about 2018, so further upgrades of the Seahawk to reflect evolving regional treats and capabilities can't be ruled out.

By Gregor Ferguson, Adelaide