Australia’s planned new-generation military pilot-training system will almost certainly include commercial outsourcing arrangements, but these should be conducted using military rather than civilian facilities, believes Royal Australian Air Force chief Air Marshal Geoff Shepherd.
To be selected through Project Air 5428, the new system – which will include fielding a replacement for the RAAF’s Pilatus PC-9 trainers by 2010 – should also adopt a joint-service approach to ensure that resources are efficiently allocated, he says.
While Australian Department of Defence capability planners will take up to two more years to complete scoping studies for the new requirement, Shepherd says he wants the effort to examine the full spectrum of pilot training, including means of avoiding competition between the three Australian services for a limited pool of candidates.
This could also see the future system incorporate helicopter flying training for the Australian Army and Royal Australian Navy as a long-term requirement.
Shepherd believes the RAAF’s current pilot training architecture is effective for current needs, but may not meet longer-term requirements as the service prepares to introduce the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter in just under a decade. However, he says ongoing work with the air force’s BAE Systems Hawk 127 lead-in fighter trainer is providing important guidance on how training capabilities could be evolved, and that India has shown interest in Australia’s phased capability approach using the aircraft. Further discussions on potential co-operation with New Delhi are planned, he adds.
Existing commercial training services provided by BAE Systems Australia at its Tamworth flying training college also provide efficient pilot screening, ab initio and intermediate training arrangements, says Shepherd. However, this contract will expire during 2008 and the air force chief believes there is a need to re-examine whether the RAAF’s needs would be better served by having its trainee pilots learn basic qualifications – potentially under new commercial outsourcing arrangements – in a military, rather than a civilian environment.
PETER LA FRANCHI/CANBERRA
Source: Flight International
