Stewart Penney/WILTON
Last year, the UK's Strategic Defence Review (SDR) launched a plethora of joint service organisations to fulfil the Ministry of Defence's aim of increasing efficiency and cost-effectiveness over traditional single-service units and commands. A major development came on 5 October, when the battlefield helicopters of the Army Air Corps (AAC), Fleet Air Arm (FAA) and Royal Air Force came under the Joint Helicopter Command (JHC).
The impetus behind the formation of the JHC is the strategic shift of UK forces away from fixed-base Cold War warriors to expeditionary troops. As a single command, the JHC should be able to prevent some of the shortfalls in support helicopters that beset UK forces in the mid-1990s.
Commanded by Air Vice Marshal David Niven, the JHC is a subordinate of the army's Headquarters Land Command. It controls the support helicopters operated by the three UK services, AAC combat machines and 16 Air Assault Brigade (which was 24 Airmobile Brigade until 1 September). Most of the JHC is UK-based, but it has units in Belize, Bosnia, Brunei, Canada, Cyprus, the Falkland Islands, Germany, Kosovo and Norway. RAF search and rescue and Royal Navy shipborne machines are excluded. The joint nature of the JHC is reflected in its command structure. Niven is an RAF officer, his deputy commander and chief of staff (COS) is an army officer, and the three deputy assistant COS are Army, RN and RAF officers. All positions are open to all services.
The key to going forward with joint organisations, Niven says, is to "maintain the single-service ethos - we're not one uniform", while identifying best practice from all three UK services and NATO countries such as France, the Netherlands and the USA. Niven acknowledges it can be difficult to identify "best practice" and that, even once identified, convincing all that it is "best practice" can be difficult.
Heavylift
Training is another key, particularly in the early days, as JHC units adjust from working within a single service. Niven says that joint training is crucial since deploying to a trouble spot and then working up an in-theatre capability is a luxury that cannot be afforded.
Although the RAF's Boeing Chinooks have not exercised with the Royal Marines since 1985, the big twin-rotor machine is to become an important element in getting the commandos ashore. The Royal Marines are introducing equipment too heavy to be carried by the current airlift, the FAA's GKN Westland Sea King HC4s. As a foretaste, two 27 Squadron RAF Chinooks were deployed aboard the RN's new helicopter carrier HMS Ocean for Exercise Bright Star in early November. Niven describes this as a "forerunner" to deployed operations with 3 Commando Brigade (3CB). Supporting 3CB while embarked raises crucial questions about when helicopters should be deployed, says Niven. Should they embark in home waters and travel with the force, or should they fly out and meet the ship using inflight refuelling when the fleet is closer to its destination? The RAF's EH Industries Merlin HC3 and the Chinook HC3 will have provision for in-flight refuelling when they enter service next year and in early 2002, respectively.
For Bright Star, the Chinooks self-deployed to a position off the Italian coast. "It is quite tricky to self-deploy support equipment," says Niven. But should support equipment be stored permanently on ship or be flown out by fixed-wing aircraft? The latter can limit the speed and options of deployment. Niven suspects that the alternative of deploying while the ship is still close to the UK is impractical. Storing equipment on HMS Ocean can be a problem as space is always limited and there are cost implications of buying extra support equipment.
Deploying to HMS Ocean - or HMS Albion and HMS Bulwark, the two assault ships due to enter service early in the next decade - means army and RAF personnel must be as comfortable working on ship as from land, says Niven. Support is vital as the JHC has inherited three logistics chains and it is "important" to integrate as they are manpower intensive. Niven does not see the same mechanics working on all services' helicopters, but says: "I will be encouraging more exchanges, not only aircrew but also at the technician level. It is a good way of learning."
Niven is to start a study next year into flying training. It will look at the tri-service, contractor-owned Defence Helicopter Flying School and at "how we turn its output into front-line pilots and crewmen as we have three ways of doing it". This is important for the RAF's support helicopter simulator complex at RAF Benson - which supports Chinooks, Merlins and Westland Pumas - and the AAC's GKN Westland Apache Longbow simulator is about to come on line. "We will look again at best practices and apply them," says Niven.
"Doctrine is an interesting area," he adds. Before the SDR, the British Army had started to develop its air manoeuvre forces and the RN had its maritime contribution. The drive is to develop concepts for deploying battlefield helicopters from afloat to ashore - not to the beach, because today's helicopters can support more than an amphibious assault. In the past, doctrinal development was single service.
Now, with the aid of the Joint Defence Concepts Centre at Shrivenham, the JHC will develop the role of the battlefield helicopter and joint doctrine for national, multinational and NATO operations. The RAF's fixed-wing element has not been forgotten and an exercise in March will involve RAF fixed-wing aircraft as well as control and command assets with the helicopters and 16 Air Assault Brigade.
Although a vast array of new equipment that will have an effect on the JHC is entering service - including Merlin HC3s, more Chinooks and the Apache - the new command has time to settle before introducing the new types, Niven says. "The significant challenge is then to integrate them into JHC and make the fullest use of the enhanced capabilities. The UK hasn't done helicopter air-to-air refuelling before. The attack helicopter is a challenging aircraft to operate and brings a whole new set of weapons."
Best resources combination
While the Chinook will be essential to heavylift support of 3CB and 16 Air Assault Brigade, the JHC has a range of types such as the Lynx to the Puma, the Sea King HC4 and the Merlin to the Chinook. This diversity means changes in how assets are used and deployed. Instead of a formation asking for six Sea King HC4s, the JHC will ask what capability is required and it will supply the best combination of resources.
RAF Odiham Station Commander, Grp Capt Al Campbell, led the RAF Support Helicopter Force in Macedonia and Kosovo this year, and notes this new ability to match resources to the mission: "We're seeing it in the tasking system where we are looking at the best way of deploying and using what we've got."
Operations in Kosovo, before the JHC's formation, worked well because Campbell and the commander of 5 Brigade (now part of 16 Air Assault Brigade) had worked together before. The JHC turns such informal links into "solid formal links". Campbell says: "In the past, we talked to the RN and the army. Now, that will be more formalised, with joint standard operating procedures and closer engineering standards."
Campbell says that lessons from Kosovo - such as the "need to train together with the people you go to war with" - feed into the JHC. Reaction and deployment times have been reduced, to 2h in some cases, as evidenced by operations in East Timor, Sierra Leone and Kosovo, where there was only a short delay between the Serbs agreeing to withdraw and UK forces leading the way in.
Definition of command between the JHC and HQ Strike Command is well defined, says Campbell. The JHC is not the RAF "casting off" the support helicopter force, he adds. "The command is already beginning to deliver. I can already see advantages."
Source: Flight International
