STEWART PENNEY / LONDON
Technology also being considered as the basis for the UK's next battlefield helicopter
Oman has concluded its deal with AgustaWestland for 16 Super Lynx 300s, part of a package of purchases announced by the Gulf state in February last year, which also included plans to acquire Lockheed MartinF-16 fighters and Agusta-Bell AB139 helicopters. The European company is also poised to receive a study contract to consider SuperLynx capabilities as the basis for the UK's next battlefield helicopter.
Westland declines to reveal the Oman contract value, delivery dates or the helicopters' configuration but at recent trade shows in the region the company has displayed images of a machine with the radar, forward-looking infrared and wheeled undercarriage of its navy Lynx coupled with battlefield weapons (Flight International 27 March-2 April 2001).
The Super Lynx 300 is a major update with a glass cockpit and Honeywell/Rolls-Royce LHTECT800 engines in place of the R-R Gem. Malaysia is due to receive the first Super Lynx 300 early next year and Thailand has also selected the machine. Initial deliveries to the Royal Air Force of Oman are expected in around two years.
The UK Ministry of Defence, meanwhile, is to award Westland an 18-month, £30 million ($43million) study contract for the Battlefield Light Utility Helicopter (BLUH), which will be based on rebuilding the British Army's Lynx fleet using technology developed for the Super Lynx 300 and other export machines.
Westland has proposed mating new naval fuselages - with wheeled rather than skid undercarriages - with the dynamic, fuel, hydraulic and electrical systems of the Army Air Corps' ( AAC) current Lynxs. It predicts that the new machines would have improved payload capabilities, with maintenance costs around 60% of the in-service machines and acquisition costs roughly 50% of new helicopters.
The AAC would require 60-70 machines, while the Royal Navy could take 60 similar airframes to meet its Surface Combatant Maritime Rotorcraft (SCMR) requirement. SCMR would replace the RN's Lynx HAS3/HMA8 fleet in around 2015, although so far funding has not been secured for the programme.
Meanwhile, speculation is mounting that the losing bidders in Ireland's search and rescue helicopter competition could mount a legal challenge following Dublin's selection of the Sikorsky S-92, which was linked to the offer of work for the troubled Dublin-based FLS Aerospace. Westland says it is "considering its position" over the issue.
Source: Flight International
