FSTA Concept
(click to view full)

Back in March 2005, “British AirTanker Deal May Go Private” discussed the deal for a potential public-private partnership to buy, equip, and operate the RAF’s future aerial tanker fleet, and noted the selection of a preferred consortium. The RAF would fly the 14 Airbus A330-MRTT aircraft on operational missions and receive absolute preferential access to the planes, while the contractor handled maintenance, received payment from the RAF on a per-use basis, and operated them as passenger or transport aircraft when the RAF didn’t need them. The deal became politically controversial; though it was based on a practice that has been successful in Britain, it had surface similarities with the USA’s controversial and canceled KC-767 lease deal. Negotiations on the multi-billion pound, 27-year deal, meanwhile, charted new territory for both the government and private industry.

Which may help to explain why the final decision to move ahead on a “Private Financing Initiative” basis had yet to be issued, and procurement had yet to begin, over 2 years after a preferred bidder was selected. That hurdle is now clear, and Britain has just issued the world’s largest-ever Defence Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contract. This FOCUS Article describes the current British fleet, the aircraft they chose and how the new fleet will compare, the innovative deal structure they’ve chosen, and the project’s key events. The most recent events include the big PFI agreement, and Rolls Royce’s detailing of the award’s value to them…

• RAF Tankers: The Current Fleet
• A330-200 MRTT: The RAF’s Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft [updated]
• FSTA Program Details [updated]
• PFI: The Art of the Deal
• UK FSTA: Contracts & Key Events [updated]
• Additional Readings
  
  Continue Reading… »

AEDC at work: X-29
(click to view full)

The Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC), named for U.S. Air Force pioneer Gen. Henry “Hap” Arnold, bills itself as “The World’s Premier Flight Simulation Test Facility.” Nearly half of the AEDC’s 58 test facilities are unique in the U.S., and 14 are unique in the world.

These specialized test facilities have played a crucial role in the development and sustainment of virtually every high performance aircraft, air-to-air and air-to-ground weapon, missile, and space system in use by all four of the U.S. military services today. The Center has also been involved in the development of every NASA manned space system, many satellites, and numerous commercial aircraft and spacecraft systems.

In 2003, the Air Force consolidated the test operations contract and the base services contract into a single contract for operations, maintenance, information management, and base support…

Continue Reading… »

CGC Sanibel
(click to view full)

On Sept 16/05, the U.S. Coast Guard and the Lockheed Martin/ Northrop Grumman joint venture Integrated Coast Guard Systems (ICGS) completed the preliminary design review for the 58 Fast Response Cutters (FRC). “The FRC is being designed to provide the Coast Guard with a state-of-the-art patrol craft that is capable of conducting simultaneous missions,” said ICGS Deepwater’s FRC program manager Mike Duthu.

In February 2006, however, the Deepwater Program ‘temporarily’ suspended design work on the FRC-A program due to technical risk. That suspension remains in place, and it soon became clear that Congress was unwilling to fund further FRC design work. In August 2006, National Defense magazine was reporting that the Coast Guard was looking at off-the-shelf patrol ships instead. On March 14, 2007, the Coast Guard announced that it had terminated ICGS’ responsibilities for the Deepwater Fast Response Cutter-B off-the-shelf acquisition, and reassigned the project to the Coast Guard’s Acquisition Directorate. They expected to release a formal RFP for the 12 FRC-B patrol boats in May 2007, but that didn’t happen until the summer. FRC-A remains in limbo.

More than 2 years after the Coast Guard asked ICGS to accelerate the Fast Response Cutter (FRC) program timeline by more than 10 years to hasten replacement of their rapidly deteriorating Island Class patrol vessels, the Coast Guard is still waiting for replacements of any type to arrive. The 30-year old patrol boats soldier on, less the 8 “upgraded” ships whose hull cracking has made them unfit for service. Another 41 Island Class vessels still ply US and international waters.

What happened? What will happen next? DID reviews, including a GAO report that seems to indicate the end of the FRC-A program, and an RFP for off-the-shelf FRC-B cutters to finish in 2008…

• Behind the Programs: The Modernization Imperative
• Down on the Islands: The Suspended Modernization
• Not-So Fast Response: The Catch With Composite Cutters
• March 2007: What Next?
• Program Updates & Contracts [new]
• Additional Readings: Background
• Additional Readings: News, Official Reports & Statements
  
  Continue Reading… »

NH90: TTH & NFH
(click to view full)

The NH90 helicopter emerged from a NATO requirement that created NATO’s own helicopter development and procurement agency in 1992 and, at almost the same time, the consortium to build the hardware – NHIndustrie (62.5% EADS Eurocopter, 32.5% AugustaWestland, and 5% Stork Fokker). It was originally developed to fit between light naval helicopters like AW’s Lynx and Eurocopter’s Panther, and medium-heavy naval helicopters like the European EH101. A quick look at the NATO Frigate Helicopter design showed definite possibilities as a troop transport helicopter, however, and soon the NH90 project had branched into 2 versions, with more to follow. The nearest equivalent would be Sikorsky’s popular H-60 Seahawk/ Black Hawk family, but the NH90 includes a set of innovative features that give it some distinguishing selling points.

While battlefield damage to composite airframes can be more difficult to repair in the field, the combination of corrosion-proofing, lower maintenance, greater troop or load capacity, and the flexibility offered by that rear ramp have made the NH90 a popular global competitor. Orders currently stand at 507 machines, on behalf of 14 nations. This is DID’s FOCUS Article, offering an in-depth look at the multi-national NH90 program, its customers, and its chronology from 1995 to the present day.

During that time, the NH90 has become a sales success – but as many business people discover the hard way, success can be almost as dangerous as failure. NH Industries has had great difficulty ramping up production fast enough to meet promised deliveries, which has left several buyers upset at their lack of operational helicopters. Finland has announced a settlement in this regard, Australia’s deliveries seem to be on track so far, and Germany has just added a contract for key mission control software, and a Finnish government report re: their NH90 program’s problems…

• The NH90 Platform(s)
• The NH90 Production Program
• Contracts & Key Events, 1995-present [updated]
• Additional Readings & Sources
  
  Continue Reading… »

Old: Gazelle
(click to view full)

On Jan 31/08, French Defence Minister Herve Morin authorized the first public-private partnership contract by the French DGA procurement agency. This kind of arrangement is becoming more common, especially in Britain, but France has lagged in adopting it. Under this arrangement, the firms Défense Conseil International and Proteus Hélicoptères will supply 36 new Eurocopter EC120 helicopters to replace the Ecole d’application de l’aviation legere de l’armee de terre’s (EAALAT, Fench Army aviation school’s) 54 SA342 Gazelle helicopters based in Dax, France. The first EC120s are planned to arrive in 2010, and the 22-year partnership contract also covers an estimated 22,000 fleet helicopter flight hours per year for pilot training.

New: EC120
(click to view full)

The contractors will be in charge of buying, operating, servicing and repairing the EC120 helicopters, which will be the contractor’s property over the course of the contract. Pilot training itself will still be provided by the military instructors at EALAAT, which is in charge of the initial training of helicopter pilots of the French Army, Navy, Air Force and Gendarmerie. Pilots of some foreign armies are also trained at EALAAT, per international agreements. DGA release.

British E-3 Sentry
(click to view full)

In August 2005, SpaceWar.com covered a GBP 665 million (then $1.2 billion) long-term contract with Northrop Grumman for the Sentry Whole Life Support Program, issued by the UK Ministry of Defence, Defence Logistics Organization. Under the contract, NGC’s team will provide aircraft-maintenance and design-engineering support services through 20205 to improve availability and reduce overall ownership costs for the United Kingdom’s Royal Air Force fleet of 7 E-3D Sentry Airborne Warning and ControlSystem (AWACS) aircraft. As is typical of recent British contracts, the government has chosen a public-private partnership approach, with availability percentage guarantees for the aircraft.

The Sentry is the UK’s principal early warning and control aircraft and provides vital strategic support to the UK armed forces in operations around the world. Since its introduction into service in 1992, the E-3 Sentry has been used in every major UK military operation, seeing extensive use in campaigns in Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq. But it took Mother Nature to damage them…

Continue Reading… »

LCpl Taylor RM,
Afghanistan
(click to view full)

It seems like a simple, and eminently sensible change. Instead of paying for hours of service and spare parts for military platforms, and trying to forecast usage, set required reliability levels. Then implement public-private partnerships and pay defense contractors a fixed rate per year, with incentives and penalties centered around required in-service rates. Sensible? Yes, and financially attractive because it turns large portions of the maintenance budget into pre-contracted, fixed costs. Simple? No.

Minor complications include the critical importance of in-service availability as something that extends beyond a mere contract term, and the need to avoid bankrupting one’s contractors after they have accepted most of your fleet’s maintenance risk. To which one must add factors such as highly variable per-year usage rates for equipment, the lack of adequate information to make accurate forecasts on either side of the table, the importance of creating the right incentives around long-term maintenance so this is not skimped, and the need to factor maintainability into future equipment contracts in a much more integrated fashion. Each one of those aspects, taken by itself, represents a major challenge. Together, they present formidable obstacles to success.

Tornado maintenance
(click to view full)

Faced with constrained budgets and rising maintenance costs, however, the British Ministry of Defence has spent the last several years creating exactly this kind of “future contracting for availability” through-life maintenance framework for platform after platform. The efforts of exceptional individuals like former Air Vice-Marshal Nigel Bairsto have made a tremendous difference, and so has the extensive organizational commitment of multiple MoD agencies and front-line commanders. Britain currently leads the world in this field, even as the rising curve of aging defense equipment throughout the Western world forces defense ministries and departments to confront the same issues. This Spotlight article provides an index of DID’s coverage in this area…

Continue Reading… »

UK C-130 C5
(click to view full)

DID has covered Britain’s trend toward long-term, performance-based, public-private, “contracting for availability” maintenance solutions for many of Britain’s key military platforms. Add another to the list, because the UK MoD has awarded Marshall Aerospace a GBP 1.52 billion contract ($2.86 billion conversion as of June 2006) to support its fleet of C-130 Hercules transport aircraft over the next 24 years.

As prime contractor, Marshall Aerospace will work in partnership with the Defence Logistics Organisation (DLO), the Royal Air Force, Lockheed Martin and Rolls-Royce to deliver the Hercules Integrated Operational Support (HIOS) programme. The HIOS programme will provide guaranteed levels of aircraft availability to a fleet that includes both older C3/C1 models (C-130K stretched and normal) and C4/C5 models (C-130J-30 and C-130J)....

Continue Reading… »

Tornado maintenance
(click to view full)

In October 2005, a DID article noted that a pair of contracts to maintain Britain’s Tornado fleet of Tornado GR4 strike aircraft and Tornado F3 interceptors was an interim step on the way to a more comprehensive agreement. That agreement arrived as a GBP 947 million (currently about $1.85 billion) award to BAE Systems in December 2006 for “depth support” of Britain’s Tornado fleet.

Under ATTAC (Availability Transformation: Tornado Aircraft Contract), BAE will take over depot-level support and maintenance for the RAF’s Tornado fleet, with the responsibility of ensuring that enough Tornado jets are available fly rather than being paid for selling spare parts. This “future contracting for availability” approach is a major departure from traditional military and commercial practice; but it has been proven on a smaller scale within the UK’s Tornado fleet, and a number of other platforms are already operating under these types of contracts in Britain. BAE hopes to achieve the required availability levels using a combination of embedded diagnostics, rear-echelon repair process improvements, and what BAE executive and former Air Vice-Marshall Steve Nicoll referred to as the “Dirk Gently approach” to problem diagnosis and maintenance during the September 2006 TFD Group Conference.

DID explains what Nicoll meant, and discusses the ATTAC contract in more detail. These arrangements have since won rare praise from Britain’s auditors, and recently took home a UK Project of the Year award…

Continue Reading… »

Future Lynx naval
(click to view full)

In 2006, Finmeccanica subsidiary AgustaWestland received a GBP 1 billion (about $1.9 billion at 02/07 rates) contract from the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) for 70 Future Lynx helicopters. The Lynx is an extremely fast helicopter that entered service in the 1970s and has seen several versions and upgrades over the decades. Lynx helicopters have been used in a number of British Army [AH7 & AH9] and Fleet Air Arm [Mk 8] roles, from reconnaissance and attack to casualty evacuation & troop transport, logistical support, anti-submarine operations; and even command post functions.

The Future Lynx program reflects that. It will provide the British Army with 40 Battlefield Reconnaissance Helicopters (BRH), and the Royal Navy with 30 Surface Combatant Maritime Rotorcraft (SCMR). An option for an additional 10 aircraft can be split in any way desired.

This will become the DID FOCUS Article for the Future Lynx Program, describing its improvements, schedules, and related contracts. Per DID practice, the most recent items will be highlighted in green for reader convenience. The latest developments include the beginning of production…

Continue Reading… »