PETER LA FRANCHI /CANBERRA
Australia aims to fast-track Air 9000 helicopter selection, but is Canberra trying to do too much at once?
Australia's Air 9000 military helicopter rationalisation project may become a four-horse race, with Lockheed Martin considering a bid based on the Sikorsky MH-60Rin competition with AgustaWestland, Eurocopter and Sikorsky itself.
The proposed bid comes as the Australian Department of Defence has moved to dampen speculation that the tender may be followed by a new round of solicitations incorporating additional Australian Army trooplift helicopters.
Air 9000 project director Andrew Wood told a bidders' briefing in Canberra last week that the request for proposals (RFP)"is the industry solicitation process. There is no intent to follow it up with a [request for tenders] or some other form of open or restricted solicitation process."
The two-track RFP seeks proposals for the long-term rationalisation of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) helicopter fleet to as few as four types and the creation of a 20-year strategic industry support arrangement. It asks for firm proposals on the initial supply of between six and 48 more trooplift helicopters - Air 9000 Phase 2 - and either the upgrade or replacement of Sikorsky S-70A-9Black Hawks under Air 9000 Phase 4.
Responses must be in by 6 August, with a selection to be announced in December. The RFP requires the first Phase 2 aircraft to enter operational service before the end of 2006, if not earlier.
Eurocopter is offering the NH Industries NH90, while Sikorsky is proposing various mixes of its S-70 and S-92. AgustaWestland is offering the A109 and EH101. The ADF now operates eight helicopter types, a figure set to rise to nine when the Kaman SH-2G(A) enters service midway through this year.
Lockheed Martin's proposed bid is based on its role as the prime contractor for the US Navy'sSH-60B/F to MH-60R upgrade programme. The company expects to decide shortly on whether it will proceed, with a sticking point being the Air 9000 RFP requirement for contenders to provide proposals on the establishment of a long-term strategic and industrial partnership with the Australian DoD.
The ambitious Air 9000 project schedule, which allows only two months for evaluation by the Australian DoD, is attracting criticisms from within the rotary-wing industry and from Australian defence analysts. This includes suggestions that despite the proliferation of helicopter types in the ADF, the RFP will most likely be decided on the basis of which company will supply the 12 additional trooplift helicopters, rather than long-term industry plans, simply because the new machines are required in service so soon.
Aldo Borgu, a senior analyst in the Australian Defence Policy Institute - a government-funded defence think-tank - says Air 9000 faces real dilemmas because of its scope. Although a fleet rationalisation is required, he says the DoD is "trying to do everything at once".
Air 9000 Phase 2, he says, was conceived by the most recent Australian defence white paper, released in December 2000, "in terms of additional helos, not grand designs".
Borgu adds that the project may become an early focus of the Australian government's new policy on interoperability with the USA, announced in Canberra late last month. That policy says some Australian acquisition will be decided in favour of systems that can fully integrate with US forces during coalition operations.
The Phase 2 trooplift requirement, Borgu notes, is emerging as "an interesting test case viz á viz the capability they want versus their interoperability/integration plans".
Some analysts see the interoperability policy as providing a significant competitive advantage to an S-70 bid in the Phase 2/4 competition because the baseline Black Hawk is in service with the Australian and US armies.
Borgu says, however, that while "you would think the new [interoperability] policy favours the Americans", the issue is not that simple. The Australian Army is dissatisfied with the level of capability its 36 Black Hawks provide. "Black Hawks are too small to do all of the army roles. Part of the problem is that the army has discarded additional [Boeing CH-47] Chinooks as part of the buy".
This could augur well for AgustaWestland or Eurocopter, Borgu says, but would also mean that Air 9000 would then have to be funded to purchase a Black Hawk replacement in the medium term. "In turn, that raises the question: Where is the money for that?"
But the outlook fundamentally changes in favour of those two companies if long-term strategic industry objectives take precedence in the decision. "The industrial advantage is European."
Eurocopter already has a major local helicopter support capability through its Australian Aerospace subsidiary, and is teamed with ADI. AgustaWestland has teamed with BAE Systems Australia.
Lockheed Martin and Sikorsky have both proven historically averse to the creation of new industrial capability in Australia. Sikorsky, however, is hoping that teaming with Boeing Australia will offset this.
Source: Flight International
