20 FlightCom Magazine
armed ‘Mwari’ variant of the aircraft has
not yet started, nor has formal civilian and
military certification. Furthermore, while
the initial orders are positive, further sales
prospects are uncertain in a market filled
with credible competitors, and scaling up
from building two prototypes to creating
12-24 production aircraft a year is itself a
gargantuan task.
But a large amount of risk reduction
work has already been carried out on the
XDM, including a big chunk of the avionics
and systems integration and the fitting
and testing of multiple payloads, such as
the Hensoldt Argos II electro-optical pod,
the Thales Avni wide area surveillance
imager, a GEW radio direction finder,
and a Sysdel MiniRaven ESM system.
The aircraft carried out multiple realistic
patrols to coastal areas, border regions,
and neighbouring countries with this and
other systems fitted, to test real-world usage
and the ability of the operator in the backseat to efficiently deal with the incoming
information.
Therefore, although much work remains,
the outlook is still positive. For one, many of
the strengths that have driven the project’s
success until now will be of equal utility
for the next phases of the project, and all
three companies involved have significant
experience in dealing with the types of
integration and production problems that
might soon arise.
Aerosud, which has provided most of the
design and engineering work on the project,
has decades of experience making complex
aircraft parts to the highest civil and military
standards in a range of exotic materials. As
a key supplier to Airbus (for which it makes
a number of components for civil airliners,
such as the A350 and military aircraft like
the A400M), Boeing, BAE Systems, and
others, it has made itself compatible with
the demanding standards those companies
place on their supply chain partners. Thisincludes a custom mine to the machine
tracking and audit trail system, which
can trace every single part the company
produces at every step of its life cycle, from
the exact source of the raw material, through
each production step, all the way to final
sign off and delivery. Every manufacturing
process is ruthlessly reviewed and improved
upon, to provide the greatest efficiency
with the least wastage of time and material.
The company has invested substantially in
modern production techniques, including
continuous fibre reinforced thermoplastics
(CFRTP), composites, laser sintering, and
the 3D printing of large aerostructures.
This experience and set of established
processes was absolutely vital in the success
of the AHRLAC programme thus far, and
the Aerosud operating model has been
carried over into the new factory. All 6,000
parts in the AHRLAC were first designed
and modelled in CATIA 5, 3D design
software which allowed the company toAHRLAC HoldingsBELOW: XDM has accumulated 250 flight test hours.