In the modern battlespace it’s no longer good enough to have the fastest, best-armed or heaviest lifting platform, according to Airbus Defence and Space chief Fernando Alonso. In the modern fight, those platforms have to become ‘smarter’, able to process and share more information than ever before.
Nigel Pittaway | Munich
Alonso was speaking to journalists from around the world in Munich in June, as part of the European defence company’s annual Trade Media Briefing. Together with group partner Airbus Helicopters, the company outlined its sales campaigns, gave product overviews and program updates, but also provided a glimpse into the future with detailed presentations on some of the technology it is harnessing to make its products smarter.
Through Airbus DS and Airbus Helicopters, the Airbus Group is very active in the Asia Pacific region, delivering A400Ms to Malaysia, C-295s to Vietnam, H145M helicopters to Thailand this year, and has begun work on the supply of A330 multi role tanker transport aircraft to Singapore and South Korea.
Here in Australia, Airbus Helicopters is delivering H135 training helicopters to Boeing, the prime contractor for the ADF’s Helicopter Aircrew Training System (HATS under JP9000 Phase 7) and the conversion of a further pair of KC-30A tankers for the RAAF is underway in Madrid.
Tanker upgrades
Airbus DS head of Engineering Miguel Ángel Morell said that the RAAF is also interested in two key developments the European manufacturer is developing for its international MRTT program, which will significantly enhance operational capability and situational awareness.
The company is developing an automatic air to air refuelling system for the KC-30As Aerial Refuelling Boom System (ARBS), which Morell says will remove the requirement for complex manual boom operations, thereby reducing risk and permitting an increased number of receivers to be supported during each mission.
Airbus DS has completed simulator testing of the automatic system and some in-flight evaluation (without contact) has been conducting using a Portuguese Air Force F-16 fighter. Morell said that the company will begin an incremental flight test campaign at the end of the year, which will culminate in fully automatic contacts.
The second development is the integration of Link 16 Joint Range Extension (JRE) which will allow the KC-30A to act as a Link 16 data relay, to enable information to be accessed by tactical aircraft which may be operating beyond line of sight (BLOS).
Morell said that the JRE upgrade will offer the relay capability via IP SATCOM (joint range extension applications protocol, JREAP-C) or through UHF DAMA (demand assigned multiple access) radio (JREAP-A). The system has completed laboratory integration testing and will shortly begin flight testing aboard one MRTT aircraft fitted with wideband SATCOM.
“The first aircraft to be fitted with JRE Link 16 will be an MRTT for France and the second customer is likely to be Australia,” Morell said.
Special Forces helicopters
Besides building the H135 for HATS, Airbus Helicopters is eying off the ADF’s future requirement for the Australian Army requirement for a fleet of armed, light reconnaissance and attack helicopters, which can be readily deployed by RAAF C-17As, to provide mobility support for special operations.
First announced in the Integrated Investment Program, between $2 and $3 billion has been allocated for acquisition beginning around 2025.
Airbus Helicopters has developed an armed version of its H145 (previously EC145 T2) helicopter, known as the H145M, and is currently delivering aircraft to the German Special Forces (15 aircraft), and the Royal Thai Navy (five helicopters).
The H145M is capable of being armed with door mounted machine guns, such as the ubiquitous MAG-58 7.62mm weapon, or Dillon M134 minigun, as well as a 12.7mm FN HMP400 gun pod and/or FZ233 7-shot rocket pod under side-mounted pylons.
The two pylons are each capable of carrying 210kg of external stores and H145M program manager Mark Henning said that work is underway to integrate the Raketsan CiRiT 2.75in (70mm) laser-guided rocket at the request of a customer. A laser designator will also be integrated into the nose-mounted Wescam MX-15HD EOS, enabling a range of future laser-guided weapons to be used. Henning said that Airbus Helicopters are also working on the integration of a Nexter 20mm cannon pod.
The H145M is also one of three Airbus Helicopters platforms to be integrated with the company’s new HForce weapons system initiative.
HForce
HForce is an Airbus Helicopters-led innovation, which adds a flexible and fully integrated weapons system to its H215M (Squirrel), H145M and H225M (Super Puma) helicopters, according to senior operational marketing manager Christian Fanchini.
The system is a collaborative effort between Rockwell Collins (hardware) and Airbus Helicopters (software) and incorporates a Thales Scorpion Helmet Mounted Sight Display (HMSD). Armament includes a range of air to ground and air to air missiles, rockets and guns.
“The system is a ‘plug and play’ weapons system that is designed to be incremental and modular,” Fanchini said. “The crew captain is the gunner, firing through the EOS both day and night. The pilot flies, the gunner fights, just like an attack helicopter.”
HForce is available in four basic options: Option ‘0’ is where the helicopter is fitted ‘for but without’; where the fixed parts and harnesses are installed but weapons are not added until a later requirement dictates. Option 1, 2 and 3 are incremental increases in capability, up to laser guided rockets and air to air weapons.
Fanchini said that the first firing campaign, using an H225M, was conducted in Belgium in May and June of this year, the first flight of a H145 fitted with HForce is expected to occur early in 2017 and qualification of the system on all three helicopters is scheduled for completion by the end of 2017.
Airbus DS’ head of marketing and sales Jean-Pierre Talamoni said the company forecast is for a global market for aircraft types it has in its portfolio of over 1,300 aircraft over the next 10 years. This is broken down into approximate requirements for 150 heavy transport aircraft, 85 tankers, 750 combat aircraft and 350 ‘mission’ aircraft (ISR, maritime patrol, AEW&C etc), totalling 107 billion Euros.
“Two thirds of the new military aircraft opportunities are in Asia and the Middle East and Asia represents about half of what is achievable,” Talamoni said. “Asia alone will account for around 42 per cent of that market.”
Talamoni said that the total defence procurement budget across the world is estimated to be approximately 400 billion Euros per year with an annual growth forecast out to 2020 of 2.4 per cent.
“The defence procurement budget in the Asia Pacific region will grow at around six per cent per annum to 2020, to around 140€,” he predicted. “Aircraft platforms represent the biggest defence segment by far, accounting for a quarter of defence procurement budgets worldwide. The UAV segment represents a small portion of defence expenditure for the time being but this segment will see the highest growth in coming years.”
Disclaimer: The author travelled to Munich as a guest of Airbus Defence and Space.
This article first appeared in the August 2016 edition of ADM.