Projects:P-3K2 Orion arrives home | ADM June 2011
Nick Lee-Frampton | Wellington and Whenuapai
There was neither brass band nor dry ice at the welcome home ceremony for the prototype Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) Orion P-3K2 on 2 May, but there was no shortage of compliments.
“It is an extremely capable aeroplane,” Des Ashton, deputy secretary at the NZ Ministry of Defence, told ADM. “It is going to be very valuable to the country in the years to come. The crews, when everything is operating properly, will feel they’ve gone to heaven.”
Steve Smyth, head of the Royal New Zealand Air Force’s program management office, was succinct in his praise: “It’s a bloody good package.”
Wing Commander John Lovatt of 5 Squadron, operators of the six-strong Orion fleet, told ADM the capabilities onboard the aircraft are now really extensive and “very, very capable.
“This is not like the Rigel (navigation and tactical suite) upgrade we had in 1984, this is more akin to the jump from the flying boats to the P-3,” he said.
Kevin McMahon, assistant secretary of Defence, told ADM that further software updates are due, but said “You have to start somewhere”, acknowledging that the craft is a prototype. “Another 12 months and maybe it would have been 100 per cent perfect …”
So, the prototype, P-3K2 Orion that set off for its upgrade in September 2005 and was, optimistically, expected back in 2008 from prime contractor L-3’s facility in Texas has been given the thumbs up.
“I came to this job in October 2008 and at that stage the [P-3K2] prototype was already some months late,” Ashton said.
With ’04 finally back home, it’s now in a hangar at Safe Air’s Blenheim base, for several months of overdue maintenance, including structural inspections directed at detecting corrosion and stress. Also at Blenheim is the first production P-3K2 that is due to be delivered, once its software has been upgraded to the same configuration as the prototype, in July 2011. Two more updated Orions are due to be delivered in 2012, with the final pair delivered in 2013, ready for operations until 2025. The ‘delay’ caused by servicing the prototype K2 is not necessarily a disadvantage, as Flight Lieutenant Tony Beilby of 5 Squadron explained to ADM.
“We are not expecting the first production aircraft to come out until mid-year so we have a couple of months to work on training packages as well as getting ready for the operational test and evaluation (OT&E).”
Squadron Leader Danny Lazet, also of 5 Squadron, told ADM that there is ‘quite a bit of work’ to do with publications and training.
“We need to make sure they are fully up to date,” SQNLDR Lazet said. “It’s an ongoing process as we learn about the systems … and any changes to the software need to be reflected in the publications.”
Deputy secretary Ashton said, “There have been a number of challenges along the way, most of them to do with the integration of the complex mission systems. There were about 22,000 action reports arising out of the tests, things that needed to be examined or at least explained away. When the aircraft was finally accepted that number was reduced to 80 or so action reports which needed attention.”
However, not all the delays to the upgrade program can be blamed on the new software. Loose wing fasteners were discovered during the update, in an area reworked during the wing refurbishment program conducted between 1997-2001.
“Some 300 hours of test flights were required to sort out the various problems [and] we had issues with aerodynamic vibration, stall characteristics and airspeed indications too.
“The stall problems were more to do with the airspeed indications than the stall itself.
The new [digital] system is far more sensitive than the old analogue system so there was far more perturbation in the pilot static system and when you damp it, to get rid of the chasing, it puts a lag in to the system.
“I think the upshot is there is going to be a restriction on wet weather operations, in the short term anyway, in terms of how much fuel the aircraft can carry on particular runways, such as Whenuapai (runway length 2,031 metres).
“Some of the vibration issues have been changed by altering the antenna configuration. Some of it you can do in a wind tunnel by analysis, but a lot of it has just required flying and then adjustments and more flying, so it has taken a long time. However it ended up not being an airworthiness issue,” Ashton said.
On the stall issue, WGCDR Lovatt said, “Initially we thought the modifications to the airframe had changed the stall characteristics of the aircraft, we were getting a different response and also a different indicated airspeed during the stall.
“In fact the stall profile of the aircraft hadn’t changed, but there is slightly more energy in the buffet levels during the stall so the stall characteristics have changed slightly. In fact you could say it has improved, as the energy level in the buffet gives the pilot more warning.
“In addition to that, because of the hanging airspeed indication, L-3 has installed an Angle of Attack (AoA) system as well and that provides the pilot throughout the flight profile with a better indication of the aircraft’s attitude.”
ADM asked Squadron Leader Keith Bartlett, who flew ’04 back home, how the upgrade had affected the aircraft’s weight.
“The weight has decreased, mainly due to fibre-optic cables replacing the copper [sheathed] wiring and also because the new electronics are smaller and lighter, so the whole aircraft is 500 — 600lbs lighter.”
Asked if there would there be any reduction in the time required to prepare the aircraft for take-off SQNLDR Bartlett said, “We expect the pre-flight time to be the same as with the legacy aircraft. Although there is a lot more processing power it takes a similar time to boot up because there is so much more.”
Quizzed about the air-to-air mode of the P-3K2’s new Elta EL/M 2022A(V)3 radar and how the system performs, WGCDR Lovatt replied, “We could turn the radar on, on the flight-line [in Texas], and immediately have 500-800 airborne targets. It’s probably the busiest airspace I have flown in, so the air-to-air mode was really useful from a flight safety perspective.
“We still have some fine tuning to do along the way, as we do on all the systems, but they are very, very capable systems. We will be learning how to fully utilise them for some time. The crew like to refer to them as onions, you just keep peeling away and there are layers and layers of functionality. That’s on every single system that we’ve got and we have integrated all these systems — it gives you incredible flexibility aboard the platform.
“It is a force-multiplier aircraft. I can’t think of anyone that has the capability that we have got at the present time.”
As well as upgrading the P-3K Orions’ systems, the NZ$373 million project includes the provision of a full-motion, flight training device as well as the System Integrated Testing Laboratory (SITL) that will be used for training both air and maintenance crews.
That capability is coming later in the year, Ashton said, after testing is completed. McMahon said the SITL is two months away from being disassembled and will be key to future upgrades.
Commenting on how the P-3K2s compare with their RAAF counterparts and about its new overland surveillance capabilities Ashton said, “Ours are a generation ahead of the Australian aircraft in some areas because they have more modern systems in them now. So we will be better able to contribute to any coalition activity.
“The aeroplane can perform functions and operations over land to a much greater degree than it could previously so that does throw up some options for the future.
“In terms of systems, this is the most complex project that we have undertaken, full stop. I take my hat off to the people involved in this program, they have put their hearts and souls in to getting this aeroplane out — they are too numerous to mention but they know who they are.”
“We are now getting to the point where we learn to operate the systems effectively and safely,” Air Vice Marshal Peter Stockwell, on his first official engagement as the new Chief of Air Force, told ADM. “The platform itself is only one part of the capability. The other part of the capability is the people.”