The next two projects down the RNZAF pipeline other than the Strategic component of the FAMC are the following:
Enhanced Maritime Awareness Capability
The Enhanced Maritime Awareness Capability project will support the Government’s civil maritime security strategy, providing air surveillance capabilities that enhance all-of-Government maritime domain awareness in New Zealand and the Southern Ocean. The capabilities delivered through this investment will be dedicated to civil surveillance requirements, with Defence support for their delivery and operation. This will free up the new P-8A maritime patrol aircraft fleet to fly more missions in the South Pacific and further afield. Investment in a range of capabilities will be considered, including satellite surveillance, unmanned aerial vehicles and traditional fixed-wing surveillance.
Indicative dates:
Industry engagement commences – Currently underway
Request for tender – 2020
Introduction into Service – 2023
Indicative capital cost: From $300m–$600m
Future Air Crew Training Capability
The recently acquired King Air 350 have allowed the New Zealand Defence Force to conduct air crew training domestically, improving Defence’s resilience and sustainability. The leased aircraft will require replacement in the mid-2020s with a training platform that reflects the
Royal New Zealand Air Force’s modern fleet of aircraft, following the introduction of the P-8A Poseidon, C-130H replacement, and strategic airlift capability.
Indicative dates:
Industry engagement commences – 2024
Request for tender – 2026
Introduction into Service – 2028
Indicative capital cost: From $150m–$200m
It will be fascinating to see both these projects unfold and what kind of mix we end up with. In some respects they will have to be complementary with each other, though that does not mean a rinse and repeat of an identical platform for both projects. These two acquisition projects will require direct association with each other to generate the optimal capability. It will be important for Defence to examine them together so as to not create a silo solution within each project.
The graduates from the FACTC project will go on to work with the EMAC project and the platform selected for the FACTC will have synergies in the operational output of the EMAC and FASC projects. Also the EMAC will inform and react to the Maritime Satellite Surveillance Capability (MSSC) due to start next year and be in place by 2025 as well as the Long Endurance Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Capability post 2030.
As noted in DCP19 the LRUAV Project will be acquired to support land and maritime forces with improved, continuous intelligence and surveillance. The capability will provide a greater range and coverage of operational areas, while also reducing risk posed to personnel in collecting intelligence. The MSS Project is separate to the current WGS-9 capability is about the procurement of specific coordinated services from operators of satellite systems which will provide broad coverage of our expansive maritime domain, allowing for improved situational awareness, and more targeted and efficient use of surface vessels and aircraft.
My preliminary thoughts sense the orthodoxy of selecting the MQ-9B Sea Guardian for the EMAC solution as it will be have a number of operational and workflow efficiencies with the P-8A, WGS-9 and MMS projects, as well as provide a capability pathway into the LRUAV project next decade. EMAC project notes that the solution can be drawn from UAV, Satellite and fixed wing solutions. That is true but does not necessarily mean that EMAC will wrap up all of that into three specific platforms. It may well be that the satellite component of the project can flow into enhancing the concurrent MMS project and that the fixed wing component of the EMAC solution can flow into the enhancement of the FACTC project - as the existing Air Crew Training Capability Project (ACTC) does. This leaves what should the actual FACTC capability be.
The FACTC as a joint training platform for both MEPT and AWOT will have to reflect as the DCP19 notes the RNZAF’s revised fleet of the P-8A Poseidon, C-130-30J-30, and B757 strategic airlift replacement, which will very likely be a converted wide body commercial jet. I note that there has been a shift to a light-medium business jet amongst some militaries over the last couple of years for MEPT, away from the older KA-350 platform. With a predominant "heavy" future jet fleet and with the PW TP-6 in the T-6C going for a twin biz jet solution does have logic.
In 2017 I identified the Pilatus PC-24 as a potential future KingAir replacement as the platform matures, and I still think that this is a very good prospect as an alternative to the KA-350 which would have given as a type 30 years service by the time the FACTC project goes IOC. Pilatus offer a very good ISR capability in the smaller PC-12 platform, which I gather is easily cross decked into the PC-24 via their US integration parters. They have significant experience in producing flight training systems as well. The PC-24 has both good STOL and rough field landing abilities. It is offered with QC/Combi configuration that can if equipped, swap out to either VIP, general pax (11 seat), medevac, and with the enlarged cargo door and flat cabin floor it can do a reasonable light airlift role. With 2 pilots, a steward and seating for 2 Officials and a DPS minder, it has a direct range (within flight rules) that can get to all East Coast Australia capitals including Adelaide as well as the capitals of the nine closest South Pacific nations. With 2 pilots, a loadmaster and it can air lift 1400lbs to those same Pacific destinations in a pure cargo role under normal flight rules.
I believe that this gives the PC-24 as a platform huge versatility towards meeting the requirements of the EMAC and FACTC projects in a broader sense as a supplement to a MQ-9B Sea Guardian prime acquisition in the EMAC role.
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