A UK helicopter contracting model that offers both military savings and commercial profit is arousing interest in other countries
Not so long ago, if a UK company wanted to place an aerial on top of its new office block, it would give the nearest Royal Air Force station a call. If the timing was right, a free Westland Sea King might well be the result. It was good training, went the argument; the helicopter would probably have been flying that day anyway; and the potential public relations return was incalculable. Unfortunately, the decision often meant that commercial operators did not even get the chance to bid for the work.
Growing disquiet with this state of affairs within the civil helicopter community resulted in talks in the early 1990s, between the British Helicopter Advisory Board and the Ministry of Defence, that resulted in new codes of conduct for both parties. At about the same time, a fundamental review of military helicopter tasking was leading to the promise of the boot being placed firmly on the other foot.
Civil contractors had been carrying out military tasks for many years. During the Second World War, Airwork helped to train RAF fighter pilots on G-registered de Havilland Tiger Moths. In 1961, Bristow Helicopters supplied machines and instructors to train Royal Navy Westland Whirlwind pilots at the time of the Malayan emergency. These were joined by Hillers, brought in from overseas spraying contracts to service a longer-term contract with the Army Air Corps (AAC). The task, initially set up with helicopters provided on a company-owned, company-operated (COCO) basis, carries on under a different format.
Such contracts were little more than extended charters and the practice, while cost-effective for both parties, left a grey area surrounding the rules under which the aircraft were flown. Was it right that civil helicopters, regularly captained by a civilian, were able to fly at 250ft (75m) - half the limit set by the UK Civil Aviation Authority? Who would handle the investigation if an army student suffered an accident in a civil machine? Were the civil instructors legally cleared to operate using night-vision goggles or to lift loads over hostile environments?
New arrangement
These potential minefields were resolved with the establishment of a new contract arrangement, known as company-owned, military-registered (COMR), that is now established in the UK and is arousing interest in other countries. It was rolled out in 1997 with the establishment of the joint- service Defence Helicopter Flying School at RAF Shawbury. Twenty-eight Eurocopter AS350BB Squirrels and 11 Bell 412s were acquired by the FBH consortium run by Bristow, FR Aviation and Serco Aviation (the latter has now left) and placed on the military register. FBH also took over the Bristow AAC contract, employing a further 10 Squirrels, and a search-and-rescue (SAR) training detachment was set up at RAF Valley in Wales.
As soon as it was seen to be working, the principle was applied retrospectively to some civil contracts, and an integrated project team (IPT), currently led by Col John Sherman, was established to look for other COMR opportunities. "From the military point of view, there are substantial advantages to doing this," he says. "We get better serviceability rates - typically well over 95% - an easier upgrade path and fixed costs that avoid a capitalisation 'spike'. The aircraft are also easier to dispose of at the end of a lease. Most importantly, however, everyone knows where they stand. It's an ideal means of delivering military capability in the benign environment."
One of the first contracts to be modified for COMR was established in 1993, to support the Royal Navy's Flag Officer Sea Training (FOST) efforts in exercise areas off England's south coast. A pair of Eurocopter AS365N2 Dauphins from British International (BI) at Plymouth carry training staff to and between warships from a wide variety of NATO and European navies.
They also support officer training at the nearby RN college - simulating the capabilities of the Sea King HAS4. The Dauphins conform to military release-to-service documentation, which is based on the civil flight manual. They are tasked by the RN, registered with military airframe numbers and have naval call-signs and radios. The civil pilots maintain military and commercial training standards, including currency on the RN underwater escape trainer. They conform to civil flightcrew limitations, however, and the IPT, to ease their eventual return to the civil market, contracts with the CAA to retain "oversight" of all COMR helicopters.
The vast majority of staff transfers are carried out via deck landing (as opposed to winch) and BI chief pilot Tony Turpin, a former RN pilot and in position since 1993, is now familiar with a variety of techniques for doing this - in weather conditions that can be anything but benign. "We probably visit more foreign flightdecks than any RN flight. The deck layouts and approach techniques also vary from navy to navy - there must be four or five even within NATO and we are careful to conform to their individual requirements. We owe it to the hard-pressed ships' crews to fly in a way that is familiar to them - a 'work-up' under FOST staff is no picnic."
The FOST contract, up for renewal soon, is likely to draw in another regular requirement for a Sikorsky S-61N to support Joint Maritime Command exercises off the west coast of Scotland. BI services this with a helicopter rotated from the Penzance-Scilly Isles passenger schedule. Another BI contract, supporting UK forces in the Falkland Islands with personnel and freight transfer, is destined to come under the COMR banner when it is renewed this year (although contrary to earlier expectations, responsibility for SAR is to stay with the military).
COMR has yet to make similar strides overseas, but its COCO forerunner is. Since 2000, Geo-Seis Helicopters of Fort Collins, Colorado has been supporting the US Navy's Military Sealift Command (MSC) with two Eurocopter SA330J Pumas. They fly from any one of three MSC combat stores ships, which operate on six-month deployments in the Mediterranean. The contract is worth $20 million and may, with extensions, run up to 2005. The helicopters fly in rotation from the vessels in place of US Navy Boeing CH-46 Sea Knights.
Ship to shore
The Pumas fly cargo and personnel from supply ships to combatant vessels and provide a ship-to-shore service. MSC commander Rear Adm Gordon Holder says that outsourcing helicopter services can be a cost-effective alternative as the CH-46s age. The contractor service frees military billets for combat missions and the two Pumas and seven civil crew members replace two CH-46s and 28 military personnel. The downside is fewer billets for airmen who are due a rest away from frontline service.
In a similar arrangement to the early UK AAC/Bristow partnership, Dutch operator Heli-Holland holds a rolling contract to train small numbers of Royal Netherlands Navy helicopter pilots in Curaçao, in the Netherlands Antilles, using a Schweizer 330 and Eurocopter AS355F1. Maximising the use of the latter, it also provides an ad hoc coastguard service.
The eight Agusta A109 Powers serving with the US Coast Guard follow the COMR formula, although they are leased direct from the manufacturer. The service does benefit from the cashflow advantages of leasing and eventual disposal, however.
There is more to come. Six lease contracts worth £45 million ($85 million) annually - the most recent an FBH consortium Bell 412 support agreement in Cyprus - are set to expand to include non-combat SAR and replenishment roles. They may also replace military types in Northern Ireland.
Elsewhere, civil operators continue to wage an unequal fight with the military for their share of the cake. In Turkey, the army not only takes on the occasional load-lifting task, but has no compunction in taking over established civil operations. Dr Mustafa Atac, chief executive of Izmir-based operator Redstar Aviation, says: "We were providing an air ambulance service for the Baku Tbilisi Ceyhan pipeline project until the military moved in. We are not allowed to night-fly, but had two twin-engined Mil Mi-2s standing by on a dawn-to-dusk service. Now the army flies round-the-clock - in a single-engined Bell Huey. It's tragic."
ANDREW HEALEY / LONDON
Source: Flight International
