8/9/2014 Strategy Page

SOUTH CHINA SEA (Aug. 6, 2014) An MH-60R Sea Hawk helicopter lifts off from the guided-missile destroyer USS Wayne E. Meyer (DDG 108) for a torpedo training exercise during Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (CARAT) 2014. In its 20th year, CARAT is a bilateral exercise series between the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Marine Corps and the armed forces of nine partner nations. (U.S. Navy photo by Chief Mass Communication Specialist Kimberly R. Stephens)

27 Mar. 2014 by Andrew McLaughlin – FG

Sydney - Work on the Royal Australian Navy’s Lockheed Martin MH-60R Romeo helicopter support facilities is well underway at HMAS Albatross near Nowra on the New South Wales south coast.

Construction of the squadron and training facilities for the new helicopters commenced in late 2013, and on 26 March the Maritime Helicopter Support Company (MHSCo) commenced work on its contractor support facilities. MHSCo is a joint venture company of Sikorsky and Lockheed Martin.

One of the new buildings will be an 8,300 square metre deep maintenance workshop and hangar with space for five machines, a ramp, and direct access to the flight line, and will be equipped with a paint booth and wash bay, a structures and composite shop, an avionics shop, a hydraulic test facility, an NDT facility, and offices and training rooms. The other is a 3,100 square metre spares and logistics warehouse.

It is projected that 120 Team Romeo staff from the US Navy, Lockheed Martin, Sikorsky, and General Electric will be based at the facilities and will operate under a through life support arrangement with MHSCo as part of the Project Air 9000 Phase 8 naval combat helicopter programme.

“Excavation and construction of these TLS buildings begin an important chapter for the long-term readiness of Australia’s most sophisticated maritime helicopter,” says MHSCo president Rod Scotty. “Our company’s experience supplying repaired parts for more than 500 US Navy H-60 maritime helicopters around the world will directly carry over to a larger business model specially-configured for Australia’s maritime helicopter needs, and carried out by skilled Australian technicians and administrators inside a modern, dedicated space.”

Work on the contractor support facilities is being overseen by local Sikorsky subsidiary Sikorsky-Helitech, and is due to be completed in early 2015.

Training by ‘NUSQN725’ pilots, aviation warfare officers (AVWOs) and maintainers is well underway with embedded elements at the US Navy’s NAS Jacksonville in Florida. The unit has received four MH-60Rs from Lockheed Martin to date, and is scheduled to return to Australia in December to be formally commissioned as 725SQN.

The MH-60R was selected in early 2011 ahead of the competing NH Industries NFH 90 to replace the RAN’s 16 ageing S-70B-9 Seahawks of 816SQN, and the 11 SH-2G(A) Seasprites which never entered operational service and were cancelled in 2008 due to airworthiness concerns. The RAN Romeo acquisition covers 24 aircraft in total in a military off-the-shelf FMS arrangement through the US Navy, and the aircraft are identical to US Navy machines.

As part of the contract the RAN has also bought a ‘Bromeo’ training aid which was delivered to Jacksonville in February. The Bromeo is essentially a mothballed non-flying SH-60B Seahawk which has been taken out of storage and modified with MH-60R avionics and dynamic components for maintenance training.

03.07.2013 Helen Chachaty - journal-aviation.com

Le premier hélicoptère MH-60R Seahawk Romeo de la Royal Australian Navy a effectué son premier vol d’essai à l’usine de Sikorsky, dans le Connecticut, le 26 juin dernier. L’appareil, immatriculé N48-001, est resté une heure et vingt minutes dans les airs, pour effectuer toute une série de tests tels que la performance des moteurs, l’analyse des vibrations et la navigation.

L’hélicoptère multimissions va à présent être transféré à l’usine de Lockheed Martin d’Owego, afin de procéder à l’intégration de ses systèmes de mission et de ses capteurs. Les deux premiers MH-60R devraient être livrés à la marine australienne en décembre 2013 et seront notamment déployés pour des missions de lutte anti-sous-marine et de lutte anti-surface.

L’Australie s’était décidée pour les MH-60R de Sikorsky en juin 2011, au détriment du NH90 NFH. Le contrat initial portait sur 24 exemplaires, destinés à remplacer les S-70B Seahawk. La vente à l’Australie est la première exportation de l’hélicoptère multimissions. La nouvelle flotte devrait être équipée de torpilles MK54 (Raytheon), de missiles AGM-14 Hellfire (Lockheed Martin) et de mitrailleuses.

Dec 4, 2012 ASDNews Source : CAE

Today at the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation, and Education Conference (I/ITSEC), CAE announced it has won a series of military contracts valued at more than C$70 million. They include a contract from the United States Navy to develop two MH-60R tactical operational flight trainers (TOFTs) for the Royal Australian Navy under a foreign military sale program, a contract from the Australian Defence Force to provide King Air 350 simulator services, and a contract from the Royal New Zealand Air Force to provide C-130 training.

"CAE has a long history of providing the Australian Defence Forces with world-class flight simulators and training services, and we are pleased our MH-60R training systems will play a role in preparing the aircrews who will operate Australia's next-generation multi-role naval helicopter," said Gene Colabatistto, Group President, Military Products, Training and Services, CAE. "Our strong position on programs that have long-service lives ahead of them, such as the MH-60R helicopter, will continue to drive opportunities for CAE's comprehensive portfolio of simulation-based products and services. In addition, our established presence in Asia and the Pacific will provide for growth opportunities as these regions become more important to defence customers worldwide."

US Navy/Royal Australian Navy

CAE was awarded a contract to develop two MH-60R tactical operational flight trainers (TOFTs) for the Royal Australian Navy under the United States foreign military sale (FMS) program. CAE USA will be the prime contractor responsible for the design and manufacture of two MH-60R TOFTs that will be delivered in 2015 to HMAS Albatross, located near Nowra in New South Wales and home of the Royal Australian Navy's Fleet Air Arm.

The MH-60R TOFTs include both a full-motion operational flight trainer (OFT) that will be used to train Royal Australian Navy MH-60R pilots and co-pilots as well as a weapons tactics trainer (WTT) to be used for training rear-crew sensor operators in the MH-60R Seahawk helicopter. The MH-60R operational flight trainers for the Royal Australian Navy will include the CAE True electric motion system, motion seats, 220-degree by 60-degree Barco visual display, and the CAE Medallion-6000 image generator. The MH-60R OFT and WTT can be operated as standalone training devices, or networked to become an MH-60R tactical operational flight trainer to provide a total aircrew mission training system. The MH-60R TOFTs for the Royal Australian Navy are based on the MH-60R TOFTs that CAE is delivering to the U.S. Navy.

CAE Australia will support CAE USA in the development of the Royal Australian Navy's MH-60R TOFTs by customizing and leveraging Australian-specific common databases (CDB) already developed by CAE Australia for other programs in Australia.

The Commonwealth of Australia selected the U.S. Navy's MH-60R Seahawk helicopter as their new multi-role naval combat helicopter last year to fulfill the Australian Defence Force's AIR 9000 Phase 8 requirement. Australia is acquiring a fleet of 24 MH-60R Seahawk helicopters via the U.S. Government's FMS program. This is the first-ever procurement of the U.S. Navy's most advanced anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare helicopter outside the United States. The U.S. Navy is supported by Team Seahawk, which consists of MH-60R airframe manufacturer Sikorsky Aircraft, mission systems integrator Lockheed Martin, engine manufacturer GE, sensor supplier Raytheon Corp., and training supplier CAE.

Royal Australian Air Force

CAE has signed a contract with the Australian Defence Force (ADF) to provide Hawker Beechcraft King Air 350 training until 2018. CAE will deploy a CAE 5000 Series full-flight simulator (FFS) representing the King Air 350 with Proline II configuration to a training facility in Sale, Victoria. Under terms of the contract, CAE will provide simulator services for Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) and Royal Australian Navy (RAN) King Air 350 aircrew who train on the aircraft for a range of missions, including tactical support, maritime surveillance and light transport.

"The simulator services provided by CAE will play a key role in the cost-effective training of RAAF pilots, air combat officers and RAN aviation warfare officers," said GPCAPT Gregory Hoffmann, Officer Commanding Training Aircraft Systems Program Office (TASPO).

The CAE 5000 Series King Air 350 FFS will be qualified to Level D, the highest certification for flight simulators, by Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA). The King Air 350 simulator services will support the RAAF's No. 32 Squadron at RAAF Base East Sale, as well as the School of Aviation Warfare (SAW). This will be the second King Air 350 FFS that CAE has deployed in Australia, following the inauguration in July this year of a King Air 350 ProLine 21 FFS in Melbourne. CAE has commenced delivery of training services to the RAAF's No. 38 Squadron using this simulator.

RNLAF/RNZAF

CAE has signed an agreement with the Netherlands Ministry of Defence (NLMoD) to market and sell third-party training services on a CAE-built C-130 Level D full-mission simulator. The C-130 full-mission simulator, which CAE delivered for the Royal Netherlands Air Force (RNLAF) in 2010, is currently housed at CAE's Amsterdam Training Centre in Hoofdorp. In addition, CAE has signed a contract with the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) to provide comprehensive C-130 training. The RNZAF C-130 aircrews will receive simulator instruction from CAE at the Amsterdam Training Centre, including training on the RNLAF C-130 simulator that closely matches the configuration of the RNZAF's upgraded fleet of C-130H aircraft. The RNZAF also trains in-country on a CAE-built C-130H flight training device, which CAE delivered to the RNZAF base in Auckland under the C-130 Life Extension Program (LEP) and is currently upgrading for the RNZAF.