To support its 22 Tiger armed reconnaissance helicopters (ARH), Australia is to get its own training infrastructure. ARH is essentially an HAP variant, but with the Lockheed Martin AGM-114 Hellfire II anti-tank missile and 70mm instead of 68mm rockets. As a result, it will have a different helmet-mounted sighting system and head-up display.
A project team of 16 Australian engineers, logisticians, test pilots, flying instructors and project managers is in Provence to oversee the project. Most of the team, including its commander, Lt Col Andrew Dudgeon, is based at Marignane, while two engineers are based in Paris.
"So far three out of 13 instructors have completed their type conversions here," he says. "ARH conversion will follow 75h each on the HAP and, hopefully, some simulator time. Further Tiger weapon training will take place at a redeveloped Army Aviation Centre at Oakey, Queensland, beginning in early 2005. The first new pilots are expected in the second half of that year."
Australian training will mirror the Franco-German effort, with 16 pilots and 16 battle captains set to be trained each year. However, Australian Tigers will have an all-officer cockpit. A single FMS with switchable cockpits and a CPT, together with an underwater escape trainer, will be set up at Oakey and a further CPT delivered to the 1st Aviation Regiment - the first unit to get the helicopter - at Darwin, Northern Territory.
Centre and front fuselage sections for the first Australian Tiger, ARH1, were mated at Marignane ahead of schedule and first flight is planned for February 2004. The fuselage sections of ARH5, the first of the machines to be assembled in Australia, have been mated and sent to Australia in the next few weeks. Assembly and test of ARH5 to 22 will take place at a new Australian Aerospace (formerly Eurocopter Pacific) facility at Brisbane International Airport.
The first two aircraft are to fly in Australia late next year, before official handover in December. The 1st Aviation Regiment is due to be ready for operations in June 2007.
Source: Flight International
