ADM: What is Sikorsky Helitech’s Australian footprint is at the moment and what work you are actually doing, both in Brisbane and around Australia?
Stilianos: Our presence in Brisbane dates back to the 1950s. Today, we have approximately 230 staff spread across the eastern side of the country performing helicopter overhaul and maintenance for Pacific region customers. Our main facility is located in Pinkenba, Brisbane, where we have about 120 staff. With the first of 24 Royal Australian Navy Romeo (MH-60R) helicopters coming to Australia later this year, we are overseeing the building of a maintenance and warehouse facility at Nowra, NSW. Helitech has assigned nearly 50 staff at present to the Nowra project, and that staff size will ramp up to 100 plus in the next few years. Six of our technicians supporting the Romeo program are actually based at the US Naval Air Station Jacksonville in Florida undergoing training with the RAN Squadron. We also have just under 20 staff supporting activities with the 5th Aviation Regiment and subsequently another 40 staff are in the 6th Aviation Regiment in Holsworthy. And we’re in discussions with a local partner in Perth to establish a presence on the west coast where the market for Sikorsky’s heavy lift S-92 helicopter has the potential to grow.
ADM: What sort of work do you do undertake at your Pinkenba facility?
Stilianos: Our current activities there are fairly diverse. Our strategy with our customers is to provide a full support solution and our capabilities reflect that. On the military side of the business in terms of Brisbane, we’re an Approved Maintenance and Engineering Organisation for the Sikorsky Black Hawk and Seahawk aircraft plus the Bell Kiowa aircraft. The services we provide for both military and civilian customers range from providing technical support services, design and engineering (either repairs or modifications), training, component maintenance, aircraft maintenance and spare part sales and distribution.
And then on the civilian side we’re a Sikorsky customer service centre for S-76 and S-92 helicopters and a Bell approved CSF (Customer Service Facility) for their range of aircraft products as well.
ADM: What is your relationship with the parent company, Sikorsky, in the US?
Stilianos: We have a very close working relationship with the parent company. We’re a 100 per cent owned subsidiary of Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation. Historically, we have been a helicopter service centre for customers in Australia and NZ. In recent years there’s been a strategic effort by Sikorsky to expand our role in the Asia-Pacific region, particularly with the market in southeast Asia.
ADM: What is your strategy for the Asia-Pacific region looking to the future and what sort of work do you already undertake here in Australia for the region?
Stilianos: Asia is a growing market for Sikorsky. Sikorsky Helitech’s role in Australia lends itself well to providing similar services to the Asian market, and we’ve already been working some opportunities, among them supporting the Royal Thai Navy on a refurbishment program for their S-70B Seahawk aircraft. We’ve sent maintenance teams to Singapore in support of their Seahawk aircraft, and to Brunei in support of their Black Hawk fleet. So we’ve seen some growth over the last few years, and we see that continuing. This expansion into Southeast Asia can provide opportunities for our local support network in Australia as well.
ADM: How are you presently supporting the ADF Black Hawk and Seahawk fleet or other ADF rotary wing assets?
Stilianos: We are at an interesting time, as we’re at the tail end of the operating life of the Black Hawk and Seahawk fleets, and supporting the Army and Navy in ensuring those aircraft continue to perform. On the other hand, we’re excited to build up our capability to support the incoming MH-60R Seahawk aircraft.
For the Kiowa fleet, we’re currently performing a seat modification program, which involves incorporating energy-attenuating seats into the aircraft. The seat modification program is a great example of our diverse capability and total support strategy, where we have designed the modification, installed the prototype, manufactured the kits, and we are now performing the fleet integration. All of that work has been performed within our facility in Pinkenba.
The logistics and maintenance staff we provide to 5th and 6th Aviation Regiments also do a great job in supporting the Australian Army fleet at the operational level.
ADM: What is your relationship with the Maritime Helicopter Support Company (MHSCo)?
Stilianos: MHSCo is a partnership between Sikorsky Aircraft and Lockheed Martin, the co-prime contractors for the US Navy’s MH-60R Seahawk program. The joint venture company was established in 2000 to provide an efficient and cost-effective aftermarket solution to the navy customer. So MHSCo has been contracted to support the RAN program. Both Sikorsky Helitech and Lockheed Martin Australia are part of the MHSCo team that will provide Romeo through-life support to the RAN. Today, we’re seeing Sikorsky Helitech and Lockheed Martin Australia staff working side by side to deliver that capability to the RAN.
ADM: When the Air 9000 Phase 8 competition was running, there was a plan to upgrade the retired Army Black Hawk and Navy Seahawk aircraft, and on-sell them. Is that still alive? How has that plan progressed?
Stilianos: We are continuing to discuss that plan with the Commonwealth. Sikorsky sees that there’s a strong market for refurbished Black Hawk and Seahawk aircraft around the globe. Australian S-70 helicopters are definitely ideal candidates for those refurbishment opportunities, and that also interests us because it offers opportunities to also sell aftermarket services and capability to that same market.
ADM: If that plan does come to pass at some point in the future, what sort of upgrades are you proposing?
Stilianos: I think there are probably two elements of that. The first is the refurbishment of the aircraft to a standard configuration, making sure we extend the life of the helicopter for another 20-odd years. The second element is replacing and/or upgrading components or systems to the later specifications to increase reliability and reduce cost of ownership.
ADM: There was also some talk at the time of upgrading into an almost common standard – where they would still be a Black Hawk or a Seahawk, but they would have emergency response role equipment or something similar. Is that still the case?
Stilianos: Retired Black Hawk and Seahawk helicopters can be reset to a base utility configuration, and then upgraded with mission-specific equipment, whether upgraded avionics, new rotor blades or a rescue hoist for instance. We can add role-specific equipment to meet the customer’s mission.
ADM: Before its acquisition by Sikorsky in 2003, Helitech Australia had a significant technical training and classroom capability for budding engineers, etc. Is this still the case?
Stilianos: Yes it is. We still have our training school, and actually we’ve developed and grown that training school over the years. We’ve recently received our CASA Part 147 approval and, along with our Bell airframe courses, we’ve established a relationship with Flight Safety International as their representative in region. So we provide training on their behalf, both here in Brisbane and also in Singapore. Flight Safety International have a strong relationship with Pratt & Whitney and Sikorsky, so we’re currently supporting them on all their Pratt & Whitney engine training, and we’re looking at expanding our training services to also include the aircraft that those engines are fitted to. Our future plans include also working with Sikorsky and how we can best provide maintenance support or training services to the operators of S-70 Black Hawk aircraft in this region.
ADM: Do you have a role in the Queensland Government’s Technical and Further Education Program?
ADM: We work closely with the apprenticeship training companies by providing opportunities for work experience and exposure to the helicopter industry. Sikorsky Helitech is very focused on developing their staff. We have a strong scholarship program which allows our staff access to tertiary education. I am testament to that focus on staff development. I started with the company as a graduate engineer 14 years ago and worked my way through the company to where I am now, as the General Manager.
ADM: What design work is undertaken by the company in terms of modifications to aircraft or handling systems?
Stilianos: This is a bit of a passionate area for me because that’s where I started with the company. As a Part 21M CASA approved organisation and DGTA Approved Engineering Organisation, we’ve completed numerous designs for both military and commercial customers, developing modifications and conducting system integration activities. The design engineering capability is very complimentary to our other services and provides that total support solution to our customer.
We also have a number of STC (supplementary type certificate) packages that we’ve developed over the years. We’re currently modifying an S-92 helicopter to accommodate a wheelchair. A wheelchair may sound simple, but we’ve have to design the chair to meet the latest crash worthiness standards whilst ensuring that the chair is still comfortable to sit in. That’s been an interesting design project for us.
ADM: Does Sikorsky Helitech remanufacture rotor blades or do you just sell new ones?
Stilianos: We do both. We sell new Sikorsky and Bell blades to military and commercial customers, and we have the internal maintenance capability to repair Sikorsky and Bell main and tail rotor blades. We’re the only Sikorsky and Bell approved blade repair facility in Australia. Because blades are expensive to ship around, it is definitely a real advantage to have that in-country capability. We are in discussions with other OEMs with regard to the range of blades that we can repair in country.
ADM: Has the company employed DSTO specialised bonding for aircraft skin repairs?
Stilianos: We are capable of conducting those repairs, although we are tied to each particular OEM’s repair scheme. So in terms of that composite capability, it’s fairly broad but restricted to what the OEMs recommend.
ADM: In terms of income to Sikorsky Helitech, how much of the work you do is for Defence work and how much of it is for the civilian sector?
Stilianos: We are probably pretty unique in the sense that our mixture of Defence and civilian work is fairly comparable. I think the difference in those markets is that the Defence work provides longer term contracts and larger scope opportunities, which obviously is accompanied with an element of longer term security for our organisation. The civilian work is more transactional based and cyclical depending on the market, whether it be EMS or fire fighting or tourism. So one of our challenges in the commercial environment is to transform that transactional business into longer term arrangements with our civilian customers, finding arrangements where there are mutual benefits to both parties in establishing those longer term arrangements.
ADM: And a diversification question: does the company have any plans for broadening its interests in other areas, like UAVs for example?
Stilianos: A few years ago Sikorsky formed a department called Sikorsky Innovations specifically to tackle the rotorcraft industry’s most challenging problems. On the autonomy side, Sikorsky Innovations is developing and testing intelligent systems that will improve autonomous flight by two orders of magnitude, making it worthwhile for operators of large rotorcraft to feel comfortable letting an aircraft fly and make decisions during all aspects of flight.
You’ve probably heard about the X2 program that has seen a doubling in flight speed up to 250 knots using a rigid rotor co-axial design with a pusher propeller. In October, the company rolled out a light tactical helicopter version called the Raider that will demonstrate high speed as well as never-before-seen manoeuvrability in the low speed regime.
ADM: With regard to the forthcoming Defence Capability Plan (DCP), which is due to be released in the middle of next year, do you foresee anything in it of interest to Sikorsky Helitech’s future business?
Stilianos: Our focus at the moment is to perform to a high standard of excellence on the Romeo program, and to support the RAN on that introduction of that aircraft.
We definitely continue to evaluate any opportunities that come up. We have the infrastructure in place with our logistics supply chain, our engineering framework and also our training services to be able to look at different platforms that meet our longer term strategic intent.
ADM: What are the current challenges facing Sikorsky Helitech and what is your strategy for the future?
Stilianos: Our near-term challenge is to meet the growth needs of the Romeo program. During the next year, we will double the size of our organisation as we add a second major site (Nowra) to our organization. So we need to take on growth, and transfer those processes that we already have in Brisbane down into Nowra, while we continue to execute the work that we are presently doing. Fortunately, we have both the plans and the specific people in place to manage those activities across both the business sites.
The reason we have such diverse capabilities is that there’s limited volume in the Australian market and I think that’s also a challenge for most Australian companies in the Defence space. Our strategy is leveraging off the capabilities we have established and getting volume and access to other markets in the region. It is also important to make sure we aren’t reliant on one customer, in order to provide security of the business through diversity of our customer base.
We have also invested very significantly in the civilian side of our business, where we have FAA and the EASA approval, so with the capability we have established, allows us to sell those services into markets not only in Asia but across the globe.