Page 43 - Australian Defence Magazine Feb 2020

FEBRUARY 2020 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
AIRPOWER CHINOOK 43
The intent for Australia is to stick with that philosophy through the life of the program and Defence also intends to align itself with the US Army’s future CH-47F Block Up- grade Program.
INDUSTRY RELATIONSHIPS
Colonel Allen says that CHUSPO has an “excellent rela- tionship” with Boeing Defence Australia (BDA) and points to the recently-signed CH-47 Integrated Support Services (CISS) contract between the two parties, which became ef- fective on September 1, 2018 for an initial five-year period, as an example of co-operation with industry.
“The CISS contract provides a combination of support activities, but predominantly deeper maintenance support to the Regiment in Townsville, but also training support in Townsville and also at Oakey and they also support CHUS- PO in Brisbane, in terms of engineering and logistics sup- port and their reach-back to the OEM in Philadelphia,” COL Allen explained to ADM.
“That has been a great success – particularly the blended (uniformed/civilian) workforce in Townsville, which pro- vides excellent support to the Regiment, providing them not only the deeper maintenance support but the flexibility to use them to meet unit demand by providing operational maintenance support when required.”
Colonel Allen also highlighted the work Collins Aerospace is providing in support of the CH-47Fs avionics systems, CAE in terms of simulator support and US company Columbia He- licopters, which performs major component repair and over- haul services for items including the engines and gearboxes.
“I think we have a really good blend of industry and in- house support, which is working very well,” COL Allen added. “We have great relationships with all of those or- ganisations, delivering excellent results.”
The CH-47F has a 400-hour maintenance cycle, with scheduled inspections occurring every 100 hours, so the fourth 100-hour event is the deeper maintenance visit. Army currently runs one deeper level line at Townsville, but will open a second this year, to support the mature rate of effort.
EMBARKATION AND MODIFICATIONS
One of the Chinooks major operational roles is to embark in one of Navy’s Landing Helicopter Dock (LHD) vessels as part of an integrated Air Combat Element (ACE), in sup- port of amphibious operations. The Australian Army is one of the leading users of the helicopter in the embarked role.
It is with this role in mind that the initial seven helicop- ters were delivered with a rotor brake system and, as noted, the three additional machines acquired under Land 4502/1 will receive this modification before they are able to deploy aboard ship. The fleet is also modified with undercarriage mooring rings to facilitate securing them on the ship’s deck.
From a maintenance perspective, COL Allen says a ro- bust Corrosion Protection Plan (CPP) was implemented early in the helicopter’s service life to mitigate the effects of the salt-laden amphibious operating environment.
“This includes preventative activities and we also have a detailed tracking system, which keeps tabs on how long each individual tail number is exposed at any given time,”
he explained. “And certainly, during some of our deeper maintenance servicings we pay particular attention to cor- rosion inspections and we are always looking at trend anal- ysis to play a role in continuously improving the CPP.”
CWOW & CHCAP
Australia is a member of the Chinook Worldwide Opera- tors Workshop (CWOW), which is essentially a CH-47 user group that meets biannually and includes Canada, the Netherlands, the US and UK and, as the OEM, Boeing also sits in on the workshops.
“We collaborate on identifying those common longer- term capability improvements that we would like to see, so we can engage as a collective and inform Boeing of those improvements we seek throughout the service life of the aircraft,” COL Allen said. “It is of benefit to have a common voice and I think it’s of great assistance to Boeing, to under- stand collective demands, rather than having each nation approach them individually.”
“I THINK WE HAVE A REALLY GOOD BLEND OF INDUSTRY AND IN-HOUSE SUPPORT, WHICH IS WORKING VERY WELL.”
Defence is also beginning to define a future Cargo Heli- copter Capability Assurance Program (CH CAP), that will consider a series of modifications aimed at keeping the Chi- nook fleet supportable through to life of type and maximis- es interoperability by maintaining configuration alignment with the US Army as closely as possible.
“The best example of what we are considering is the CH- 47’s Electronic Warfare (EW) system. As EW systems con- tinue to evolve and for us to continue to deploy into high- threat environments,” COL Allen said. “There also may be other modifications that are required due to obsolescence of components, so the CH CAP is really about making sure that we stay ahead of the game and looking forward to keep Chinook as effective and supportable as possible.
“We look at Chinook from every angle as a good news story. The procurement activity was successful and well- supported under the FMS program and also by our indus- try partners. We have introduced the aircraft into service and matured the support systems and we are well-placed to achieve that mature rate of effort of 2,600 hours next year. We are now looking forward to making sure we embed all the good work we’ve done,” COL Allen concluded. ■
ABOVE: A CH-47F Chinook is prepared for flight at Mount Hagen Airport during Operation PNG Assist 2018.
OPPOSITE: A Chinook lifts a Howitzer M777 field gun from the flight deck of HMAS Canberra.
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