Development of the Nimrod MRA4 has not been plain sailing for BAE, but there is light at the end of the tunnel as the modified reconnaissance aircraft nears go-ahead
Some believed that it would never fly. Others remain convinced that it will fail to receive production approval and will never enter Royal Air Force service. But BAE Systems' Nimrod MRA4 maritime reconnaissance and attack aircraft has now amassed more than 60 flight hours and is within five months of securing a contract go-ahead to meet a growing number of the UK's future network-enabled mission requirements.
BAE will submit pricing data to the UK Ministry of Defence by 15 July for the proposed delivery of 12 MRA4s, including two prototypes now involved in its flight-test campaign and a third that will join the trials activities around July, well ahead of an expected production approval from October 2005. In anticipation of business beyond its current demonstration phase activities, the company has since last year been conducting strip and survey work on the programme's next four aircraft at its Woodford site in Cheshire, with funds for this activity to expire at year-end.
BAE's experience in developing the UK's next-generation Nimrod has been chequered, and the company has long acknowledged that it will make no profit on the manufacturing project. BAE was named prime contractor for the UK's replacement maritime patrol aircraft programme in 1996, when its remanufactured MRA4 design was selected over a new-build version of Lockheed Martin's P-3 Orion. Development problems quickly dogged the project, but it was not until late 2002, well after the MRA4 had missed its targeted flight debut of mid-2001, that the true magnitude of the issues facing BAE surfaced. The company was plunged into crisis when it detailed the woes facing the MRA4 project and its development of the Royal Navy's Astute-class nuclear submarine, and its share price took a battering from which it has yet to fully recover.
Contracted in 1997 under a fixed-price deal, the MRA4 project was originally envisaged as delivering 21 aircraft for a total cost of £2.9 billion ($5.4 billion). The number of aircraft required by the MoD has subsequently fallen, first to 18 and last year to an expected total of "around 12" airframes, but costs have spiralled. A revised contract finalised in early 2003 added a further £700 million to the project's price tag, with this additional sum to be divided evenly between the MoD and BAE, which is now working on a so-called target cost incentive fee basis. BAE expects the project to fall within the identified upper price limit of £3.6 billion for development and production, and over £1.8 billion had been spent by early 2004.
The MRA4 is an extensively remanufactured Nimrod MR2 maritime patrol aircraft withdrawn from service with the RAF, which now has just 16 MR2s assigned to frontline units (Flight International, 29 March–4 April). The MRA4 configuration equips the aircraft with a larger wing, new engines and two-man flightdeck with a glass cockpit. The MRA4 can most easily be distinguished from the baseline MR2 by the round wing root inlets for its four Rolls-Royce BR710 turbofans, which replace R-R Speys. While it retains the MR2's fuselage length of 38.7m (127ft), the MRA4's new wing is larger in volume and span – at 38.7m – than the 35m of the earlier type and includes enlarged wingtip electronic-warfare pods.
Visible antennas
The aircraft also has a large number of visible antennas – over 90 have been integrated – along with a satellite communications capability. These systems will support the aircraft's involvement in the UK's future network-enabled battlespace, with the platform to be able to automatically select either Link 11 or Link 16 for data transmission, says BAE. Eight operator workstations will also include five sets with a common display and radio communications capability to boost interoperability. The MRA4 will operate with 10 crew, against the MR2's complement of 13. The RAF now believes that the MRA4 could receive further mission equipment for electronic- intelligence duties under the Project Helix continuation of its Nimrod R1 capability and carry cruise missiles and/or precision-guided bombs (see box P37).
Flight testing of BAE's current prototypes – PA01 (ZJ516) and PA02 (ZJ518) – has totalled around 61h since the former made its flight debut last year (Flight International, 31 August–6 September 2004). Used for airframe, engine and instrumentation proving and certification, PA01 in late April completed ground resonance testing and an initial stall testing campaign. Launched in May, this totalled five flights. The aircraft has received a minor modification by the addition of a small fillet to the front of the wing near the wingtip, with this intended to improve low-speed handling. It was also equipped with an emergency egress system – worth around £1 million – for use in the event of a major mishap during stall testing.
BAE's second, mission-standard prototype has logged more than 36h during 15 sorties and has been painted in RAF colours. The aircraft is supporting mission system development and systems integration, and will be joined by PA03, which has already achieved power-on at Woodford. The third prototype will introduce additional radar utility and a BAE Systems North America-supplied defensive aids system to the test campaign.
Anti-icing tests
The longest MRA4 flight so far lasted 3h 45min, with a maximum speed of 250kt (460km/h) and an altitude of 31,800ft also having been demonstrated. A maximum of 10 crew members have so far been aboard during a flight test. The communications equipment has almost been cleared, its radar and acoustics systems proven and its autonomous navigation equipment used to make approaches to minimum at BAE's Warton site in Lancashire. Anti-icing tests have also reached a state where the aircraft can fly through clouds, although it has yet to receive full operational clearance. "For the limited number of hours, we've made great steps," said Joe Harland, BAE's MRA4 project director, during an exclusive interview with Flight International.
Testing of the MRA4's mission system has included its use via datalink as part of the MoD's "Thursday War" series of synthetic training exercises. "We're pretty confident of the mission system," says Harland. Flight testing will accelerate with the availability of PA03, with BAE also looking to ease its inspection demands by reducing some checks from taking place after each flight to around every 10. Mission endurance will, meanwhile, rise as additional fuel tanks are cleared for use and the operating envelope will be proven and the aircraft's aft centre of gravity expanded using ballast. Future testing could also include an accelerated deployment of the aircraft under hot conditions.
The next four MR2s delivered to Woodford for strip and survey work have already had their wings removed, but new sets have yet to be manufactured following an MoD decision to halt production until the three prototype MRA4s have completed successful demonstrations. However, a manufacturing cell for the MRA4 wing was established at Woodford in early April, consolidating work previously undertaken at BAE's Chadderton and Prestwick sites. BAE employees have been seconded to assist in the production of wings for the Airbus A380 during the production hiatus.
Harland has a background in working on troubled UK procurements, having formerly been managing director of the Merlin Systems Programme for Lockheed Martin UK Integrated Systems, which delivered the Royal Navy's 44 AgustaWestland EH101 Merlin HM1 anti-submarine warfare helicopters. He moved to head BAE's Nimrod programme at a time of high crisis in January 2003.
In addition to removing programme risk and reducing staff numbers to around 1,200-1,400, Harland says attention has centred on assessing production activities. "We have developed a maturity programme and broken assembly into 1,800 instructions, inspecting every one on the likelihood that it might change. We could build over 80% today with no risk of change," he says, with the remaining 20% to be informed through the current flight-test campaign and by work conducted on the MRA4 iron bird test rig.
Another key activity has been to learn lessons from elsewhere in the BAE group in an effort to drive down acquisition, operating and support costs for the MoD. To achieve this, the MRA4 team has looked at the experiences of BAE's Customer Solutions & Support (CS&S) unit, which plays a vital role in operations of the RAF's Nimrod MR2 and R1 fleets. Also based at Warton, CS&S manages the Nimrod Integrated Support Contract (NISC) for the MoD and has been delivering significant cost and availability improvements since late 2002, despite the pressures of reduced aircraft numbers and operational commitments in Iraq. BAE now provides depth maintenance and spares management services for the MR2s, and will from October provide expanded maintenance support and guarantee the availability of at least 10 aircraft each day under an expanded NISC 2 contract. A future addition to the agreement will see BAE provide full weapon system availability support from May 2006. The three-phase NISC package is expected to be worth over £500 million.
With logistics costs accounting for around 60% of current acquisitions, such end-to-end support arrangements will prove vital in driving down the cost of equipment, says CS&S. In tandem with the UK's Defence Logistics Organisation (DLO), CS&S is also targeting savings on the RAF's BAE Harrier GR7/9 and Panavia Tornado GR4 programmes, partly by using improved maintenance and upgrade procedures. A key element of this will be achieved by bundling numerous support contracts into single airframe and engine packages, such as the NISC framework. For example, by streamlining around 300 Tornado support agreements into single contracts with CS&S and R-R, the DLO plans to save £1 billion by the time the type is retired from late next decade.
Best value
"We are trying to use NISC to get the best value for our customer and to see what we can learn from the MR2," says Harland. Issues include how to agree an availability-based contract with an acceptable level of risk to shareholders and how to transition the RAF's Nimrod capability from the MR2 to the MRA4 standard. This will include a period of simultaneous operations from RAF Kinloss, where the new aircraft will enter service in 2009.
BAE's pricing submission will indicate what capabilities the MoD will be able to expect from the MRA4 fleet for the maximum £3.6 billion price tag, and inform its decision on whether to approve production. "Then they will know if they can add extras and decide whether we can use the MRA4 as the basis for [Project] Helix," says Harland. As to whether the future Nimrod fleet could grow, he says: "We'd like that main deal to be for 18 aircraft, but what they've asked for today is 12."
CRAIG HOYLE/WARTON
Source: Flight International
