flightglobal.com 17-23 February 2015 | Flight International | 45
AUSTRALIA
SPECIAL REPORT“There is a lot of interest from our allies,
especially maritime nations,” Mackey tells
Flightglobal. “Triton can provide an unblink-
ing eye where a 24-hour mission can cover
2.7 million square miles, which is perfect for
protecting fisheries, oil assets, monitoring
boat people, not to mention protecting mari-
time borders. They are all watching us as we
go forward.”
Australia will become the first export cus-
tomer for the MQ-4C, Prime Minister Tony
Abbott announced in March. The Royal Aus-
tralian Air Force plans to base them at Edin-
burgh alongside its fleet of 18 Lockheed
AP-3C Orion maritime surveillance aircraft.
Tritons there will perform high-altitude
broad-area surveillance of the nation’s north-
ern maritime interests and littorals. As with
US Navy operational plans, Triton will play
spotter for other aircraft like the P-8 Poseidon
on anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare
and search and rescue missions.The US Navy has plans for five global
Triton orbits, one of which will be based in
Guam. Sean Burke, MQ-4C programme man-
ager for Naval Air Systems Command, will
not shed light on other basing possibilities
but an orbit is expected to be positioned near
the Indian Ocean, he says. Each Triton bas-
ing decision will be made in co-ordination
with positioning of the navy’s deployed
fleets, Burke says.
While Australia intends to purchase the
Triton, no date has been set for it to enter ser-
vice, though 2020 is thought to be the target.
That decision will be made following an Aus-aligned with European protocols has resulted
in a very concerned industry wanting better
representation,” says Rich.
The association currently has 100-plus
corporate members and a similar number of
individual members.
When it was established, Rich says the steer-
ing committee of the AHIA “carefully investi-
gated the needs of our industry which had un-
dergone steady growth over several decades. It
was obvious the industry was misjudging
some of the goalposts looming across the hori-
zon. The need for more multi-engine IFR crews
and highly qualified maintenance technicians
was often debated, but little action was taken.”
The AHIA set to work with the formation of
numerous working groups to provide feedback
to the regulator on proposed regulatory chang-
es. It also worked to get the industry together to
address its issues, including re-establishing the
Rotortech conference and exhibition, held in
May 2014 on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. It
is also working with international bodies, such
as the US-based Helicopter Association Inter-
national, on international issues.
MORATORIUM
The AHIA has teamed up with other sectors
of the country’s aviation industry in an effort
to tackle issues facing it. It is a member of the
Australian Aviation Associations’ Forum, for
example, which met in November 2014 to
discuss a range of “urgent aviation issues”.
The TAAAF complained that the Australi-
an government had only delivered about 40%
of its 12 key aviation election commitments.
Of particular concern was a perceived “lack of
drive and commitment to act urgently on avi-
ation”, including its failure at that time to
respond to the Forsyth report.
The TAAAF also called on the government
to establish a moratorium on all CASA regula-
tory development work until the new CASA
chief was fully operational, the board had been
appointed and it had made a clear response to
the Forsyth report. The forum said the new
Part 61 regulations that “should immediately
be suspended to prevent further damage to the
industry”. Part 61 is not acceptable to the in-
dustry in its current form and is a threat to the
viability of some sectors of the industry, it said,
and a joint industry/CASA taskforce should be
appointed to apply the principles of “sound
regulatory development.”
The government finally tabled its response
to the Forsyth Review in December and said it
has fully agreed to, or agreed to undertake a
more detailed examination of, 36 of the report’s
37 recommendations – rejecting one proposing
the Australian Transport Safety Bureau pass its
safety education function to CASA. The gov-
ernment has also expanded the CASA board
and appointed new board members, as well as
the new CASA director of aviation safety. ■
“Triton can provide an eye
where a 24h mission covers
2.7 million square miles”
MIKE MACKEY
Programme manager, Northrop MQ-4CUS Navy❯❯UNMANNED SYSTEMSScanning
the waves
Several nations are interested in
the US Navy’s latest UAV, the
MQ-4C Triton – and Australia
will be the first export customer
DAN PARSONS WASHINGTON DCO
ne by one in late 2014, the US Navy’s
three newest unmanned surveillance air-
craft left Edwards AFB in California, skirted
the nation’s southern border, and landed safe-
ly at Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Vir-
ginia, where each will have its brain rewired.
Relocating the Northrop Grumman MQ-4C
Tritons to the East Coast is in preparation for
an operational assessment of the aircraft later
this year to demonstrate whether the un-
manned air vehicles can keep persistent
watch over the world’s oceans.
The navy paid $548 million to procure the
three systems and set aside another $378 mil-
lion in research, development, test and evalu-
ation funding in its fiscal year 2016 budget.
The ferry flights were made with a software
configuration called integrated functional ca-
pability (IFC) 2.1 installed on the aircraft and
ground station. That included a wideband sat-
ellite communications capability that allowed
long-range control of the aircraft. It was an in-
cremental improvement on IFC 1, which was
used for initial envelope expansion at Edwards
AFB and was completed spring 2014.
Successful completion of the flights has in-
trigued potential international customers,
who are closely monitoring progression of
testing towards operational assessment this
summer, says Mike Mackey, Northrop’s
MQ-4C programme manager.Australia’s examples of the surveillance type are expected to enter service around 2020