Air Power: Refuelling MRTT – delays, but ‘travelling well’ | ADM Mar 2009
It seems no project is immune from delays; the RAAF's Multi-Role Tanker-Transport (MRTT) program will be some six months late entering service, which isn't serious compared with other developmental programs but still leaves a temporary capability gap.
Gregor Ferguson
The first of RAAF's new KC-30A Multi-Role Tanker Transports (MRTT) will be at least six or seven months late entering service, according to the DMO and their manufacturer, EADS-CASA in Madrid.
The first aircraft will now be handed over to the RAAF in the final quarter of 2009 instead of last month as previously planned, and the MRTT should achieve Initial Operational Capability during the third quarter of 2010, abut six months behind its original schedule.
According to Fabrice Rochereau, CEO of EADS Asia Pacific, the company has been unable to claw back schedule delays incurred carrying out structural modifications on the first aircraft.
These including strengthening the rear fuselage to accommodate the refuelling boom, installing the under-wing refuelling pods and the in-flight refuelling receptacle on the upper forward fuselage, installing the refueling system control consoles, making the necessary modifications to the aircraft fuel system and then installing some 500km of additional cabling for the flight test instrumentation on the first aircraft.
This must also be removed before delivery, contributing to the delay, he told ADM.
However, the Parliamentary Secretary for Defence Procurement, Greg Combet told officers at the Australian Command and Staff College in Canberra the delay is relatively minor.
In a speech to the College in November last year, he said he had visited EADS-CASA's Madrid facility back in July 2008: "I ... visited EADS-CASA for an update on the progress of the MRTT.
I have also visited the Qantas site in Brisbane where the fleet will largely be built.
The project is travelling well, although we are expecting a slight delay on their delivery.
We will continue to closely monitor its progress in the coming year."
According to senior DMO sources, the tanker successfully completed the first phase of flight testing which, over 60 flights, validated the engineering modifications and the aircraft's performance and handling with the Aerial Refuelling Boom System (ARBS) and under-wing Mk32B refuelling pods installed.
In parallel, the ARBS has been tested successfully right across its planned flight envelope using EADS-CASA's A310 flying test bed, and has carried out fuel transfers to both fast jets and large transports right across its planned flight envelope.
Meanwhile the second of the five aircraft the RAAF has ordered is being converted by Qantas Defence Systems in Brisbane.
This should be completed in June 2009 and EADS-CASA is now considering sending it back to Madrid to help accelerate the flight test program and recover some of the lost time.
"It would be fair to say that the difficulties faced are normal for any ‘first of type' venture," ADM was told.
"Australia will be receiving this latest tanker aircraft well ahead of other nations, some of which started the procurement process ahead of Australia," a source added, in a reference to the Royal Air Force which selected a variant of the A330-200 MRTT well ahead of Australia, but only signed the production contract in March last year.
Signature of the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) contract with the AirTanker Consortium under which the RAF will acquire and operate the new Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft (FSTA) was delayed by protracted negotiations over some of the commercial aspects of the agreement.
Flight testing
The MRTT was due to begin its next phase of flight testing late last year; this will focus on the certification and qualification of its military avionics and software, the Remote Aerial Refuelling Operator (RARO) station and the transfer of fuel from the ARBS and pods; although the refueling pods, ARBS and EW Self-Protection equipment were installed these weren't operational.
This phase will also validate minor ARBS aerodynamic modifications introduced during the A310 test program.
The first fuel transfers from the ARBS and pods was scheduled for the December-January period.
Last month Airbus Military, which has program responsibility for the MRTT within EADS, reported the second phase of testing had got under way as planned and announced the first successful transfers to the MRTT from the A310 test bed using the ARBS and the A330 MRTT Universal Aerial Refueling Receptacle Slipway Installation (UARRSI) system located above the flight deck.
Tests had also validated the aerodynamic configuration of the pods, and several hose-deployed tests were conducted at different altitudes and airspeeds.
Testing also began of the MRTT's military avionics suite.
The DMO is putting a lot of pressure on EADS-CASA to telescope the Phase 2 flight test program - not by reducing the number of flights, but by streamlining the flight planning and post-flight data reduction and analysis processes.
The program allows for up to 110 flights, to cover any unexpected surprises, and Defence would like to see the company maintain a rate of three or four flights a week.
At the conclusion of Phase 1 testing the MRTT received its civil type certificate, under the FAR 25 regime; it will undergo military type certification under the Spanish military airworthiness regime with certification planned for the fourth quarter of this year; contractual acceptance of the second and subsequent aircraft cannot happen until this milestone is met.
And restrictions under Australia's military airworthiness framework mean the second aircraft won't be available to perform any useful work in Australia once it is completed, so EADS-CASA is contemplating sending it to Madrid where it may be used for aircrew conversion training as well as to participate in aspects of the Phase 2 flight test program.
The aircraft's EW Self-Protection suite, which includes a DIRCM and chaff and flare dispensers, will not be integrated or tested in Madrid owing to US government ITAR restrictions; most of the MRTT's EWSP equipment is of US origin.
This element of the flight test and certification program will be carried out in Australia by the ADF in an ITAR-compliant regime.
The EWSP certification issues are unlikely to impact significantly on the new In-Service Date (ISD); assuming the first aircraft clears its flight test and certification hurdles satisfactorily, it and the second aircraft should undergo contractual acceptance in late-2009.
Concurrently, the third aircraft is due for delivery to Qantas Defence Services in Brisbane in early 2009 and should be ready for handover by the end of the year.
So the RAAF anticipates receiving three aircraft by early-2010, with Initial Operational Capability by the third quarter of 2010.
It's not certain yet whether this will include a properly tested and certified EWSP suite, but that should be operational by the time the last two aircraft are delivered, paving the way for a Full Operational Capability by early 2011.
Lost time
The DMO says EADS-CASA is doing everything in its power to claw back lost time and ensure no further delays; the company for its part states the program has been cordial and the risk management processes it has developed with the DMO have been good.
For EADS-CASA there is a contractual obligation to deliver as quickly as possible; but there is also a glittering prize in the US where its KC-45A tanker was selected by the USAF to replace that service's ageing KC-135s, only for the decision to be overturned last year.
The USAF tanker competition will re-open in 2009 and every milestone the MRTT passes strengthens its case in the US in its battle against Boeing whose KC-767 has been bedeviled by delays.
The ADF also had an option to acquire a further three MRTTs; this expired in September but EADS-CASA says it is still able to negotiate a price based on that of the first five aircraft.
Defence has shown no inclination at this stage to do so; it's not clear whether this is a cost issue or whether Defence is simply waiting to see how the second phase of flight testing unfolds.
There have been suggestions that the RAAF could use one or two of the MRTTs as VIP transports - not because of any dissatisfaction with the current Boeing 737 BBJ aircraft operated by 33 Sqn at Fairbairn, but because a bigger aircraft would allow all of a prime minister or minister's retinue to travel on one aircraft along with accompanying media.
It will be recalled there was considerable dismay that the media are now forced to use commercial flights to try and keep up with the VIP - not only are there problems with schedules and seat availability, the tragic crash of a Garuda airliner carrying a number of Australian government officials and reporters in Bali in March 2007 highlighted the potential risks to media and official retinue of flying ‘Civvie Air'.
That issue aside, ADM was told emphatically the MRTT's principal role is as a tanker and the main effort in bringing it into service will be expended on the air-air refuelling role.
That said, it has a strengthened floor in the cargo hold to enable it to carry military cargo pallets, but that hasn't affected its ability also to carry commercial cargo pallets also, up to a maximum payload of 35 tonnes of cargo.