STEWART PENNEY / LONDON
Significant numbers of the UK's Apache AH1s are to be stored pending completion of pilot conversion courses in 2007
The UK's National Audit Office (NAO) has criticised the Ministry of Defence's acquisition of 67 Westland Apache AH1 attack helicopters. Although deliveries are running to timetable and the programme is less than 2.5% over budget, training is two years behind schedule.
The Apache will be the cornerstone of the British Army's air manoeuvre capability, says the NAO, which has studied the "six lines of development" used by the MoDto acquire a capability rather than just the platform.
The NAO says all aircraft will be delivered by April 2004, and will receive all enhancements covered by contract changes by mid-2005, but risks and concerns remain. These include damage to the machine from firing the Lockheed Martin AGM-114 missile and Bristol CRV7 rocket, spares provision and the operation of some systems.
But the biggest issue is training, which should have begun in September last year and is now due to start in September 2003. Training was to be part of the prime contract for the machines, but two years after the prime contract was signed, training was placed under a separate, 30-year, £1 billion ($1.55 billion) private finance initiative-funded programme awarded to Boeing/ Westland joint venture Aviation Training International (ATIL).
The main problems have been simulator development delays, late delivery of training materials and longer-than-planned courses. As a result, significant numbers - perhaps half - of the Apaches will have to be stored, at a cost of £6 million. The late delivery of training materials cost the MoD £34 million because it had contracted for training courses that could not be run.
Simulator problems included late delivery of the Evans & Sutherland Harmony visuals system and, although the device entered service last December, it required software enhancements, says the report.
Also, it was planned for Apache pilot conversion courses to last 15 weeks, but this has been extended to 26 weeks, which means completion of conversion training for 144 pilots has slipped from April 2004 to February 2007. As simulator hours are capped under ATIL's contract, the number of pilots trained each year has fallen from 72 to 48. The MoD says it is considering ways of reducing the timescale without reducing the training's effectiveness.
NAO recommendations include that the MoD should consider at the outset the costs, benefits and impact on risk of removing elements - such as training - from the prime contractor's responsibility; and that assumptions about key processes and activities, such as course lengths, should be supported by credible evidence.
The MoD says it welcomes the report and has been addressing the issues for some time. It says procurement minister Lord Bach has raised the issue with the contractors and received assurances that there will be no more delays.
Source: Flight International
