Defence Business: Competition essential, says Airbus | ADM November 2011
Nigel Pittaway | Melbourne
Airbus Military Chief Domingo Ureña-Raso visited Canberra in September to brief Government and Defence officials about progress on the KC-30A Multi-Role Tanker Transport (MRTT) project. He also took time to brief the media about this and other Airbus Military programs of interest to Australia.
Specifically, he used the opportunity to call for a fair and open competition to select the RAAF’s new battlefield airlifter, to be acquired under Project Air 8000 Phase 2. Airbus Military is offering its C-295 medium airlifter for the role which, according to the Defence Capability Plan will be worth around $1.5 billion to industry.
“We would like to have a chance to demonstrate what we are capable of,” he said. “Australia has had the courage to look for new things, such as the Multi Role Tanker Transport (KC-30A), it will be healthy to have a competition”.
His comments follow media reports that Defence is seeking to sole-source the competing Alenia C-27J Spartan, possibly using the mechanism of a Rapid Acqisition Project (RAP) via a Foreign Military Sales (FMS) deal with the US Government. The US is buying the aircraft under its Joint Cargo Aircraft program.
Valentin Merino-Villeneueve, Airbus Military’s C-295 Programme Manager for Australia echoed his Chief’s comments: “First Pass Approval is due in mid 2012 and we are supposed to be in the market solicitation phase,” he said. “We want a fair competition”.
Merino highlighted parallels with the recent Naval Combat Helicopter acquisition project, Air 9000 Phase 8, which became a hard-fought contest after earlier reports suggested an FMS buy of the MH-60R from the United States. Whilst ‘Romeo’ ultimately won that competition, Airbus Military points to the September issue of the DMO Bulletin, which credits the competition with saving the taxpayer 25 per cent over the life of the helicopter, between First Pass estimates and Second Pass Approval.
Air 8000 Phase 2 aims to acquire up to ten battlefield airlifters to (in part) replace the capability lost with the retirement of the Caribou fleet in 2009. The current DCP schedule calls for First Pass Approval in this financial year, followed by Second Pass in FY2012-13 and Initial Operational Capability sometime between 2014 and 2017.
Asked if Defence was considering sole-source acquisition, a Defence Spokesperson replied: “In developing the business cases for Government consideration, Defence has considered a range of acquisition strategies for Air 8000 Phase 2. The Government is yet to consider the capability alternatives for the Air 8000 requirement and the acquisition strategy is also yet to be considered by Government.”
With regard to the tanker project, which is on the Government’s Projects of Concern list, Ureña-Raso says significant progress has been made and Minister Defence Materiel Jason Clare is also happy with progress over the last six months.
Speaking to journalists on the eve of the third aircraft being delivered to the RAAF on September 28th, he said that Operational Test and Evaluation of the boom in Australia can now get underway. The RAAF has requested modifications to the boom control system, which will keep the first aircraft in Madrid for some time, supporting tests of the new systems.
A further review will take place in six months, as required by the Projects of Concern protocols.
He also says he considers Australia a ‘medium term’ customer for Airbus Military’s A400M heavy airlifter currently undergoing flight test and due for delivery to the first customer, the French Air Force, in early 2013.
The A400M flight test program has recently been put under pressure by two unrelated propulsion system problems which, together, will take between 20 and 24 months to rectify. The issues prevented the A400M from being displayed at the Paris Airshow in June and flight test is now being undertaken in three shifts, seven days a week, in order to claw back lost time.
The first issue concerns the Rolls-Royce designed High Pressure Compressor in the Europrop TP400-D6 engine. “We have a resonance issue in the HPC, with the blades,” said Ureña-Raso. “It is low regime and normally apparent in the taxi.” At first thought to be caused by foreign object damage, the resonance causes the blades, and the engine, to fail with severe damage.
Rolls-Royce is redesigning the shape of the HPC blades but this will take up to two years to complete. In the meantime, Ureña-Raso says the Full Authority Digital Engine Control (FADEC) computer software has been changed to prevent prolonged engine operation in the resonance RPM range.
The second issue concerns the failure of an idler gear in the gearbox, which determines which way the propeller rotates (the A400M has propellers which rotate in opposite directions on each wing to increase aerodynamic controllability). The gear had been subject to loads 30 per cent greater than it had been designed for and will have to be beefed up and a solution will be in place by November this year.
Ureña-Raso says Airbus Military is still hopeful it will deliver the first aircraft to the current schedule, “But what we’ve lost in test will be very difficult to recover,” he says.
Subject: Air