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Aviation History
1986
1986 - 3529.PDF
DEFENCE Royal Navy receives Goalkeeper HENGELO The first Goalkeeper close-in weapons system for the Royal Navy has been shipped by Hollandse Signaalapparaten for installation in a Type 22, Batch 3 frigate. The Royal Navy has ordered 15 Goal keeper systems for the Type 22 frigates and for the aircraft carriers Invincible, Illustri ous, and Ark Royal, to provide protection against sea- skimming anti-ship missiles. Goalkeeper comprises a Signaal search and tracking radar which directs a General Electric GAU-8A 30mm rotary cannon (the same basic cannon as used in the Fair- child A-10A Thunderbolt). The radar antennae, gun, and ammunition supply form an integrated unit. The search radar operates in the I-band, and its antenna scans at 60 r.p.m., ensuring a high data refresh rate for quick detection of fast pop-up targets. The radar uses advanced digital pulse compression techniques, allied with Fast Fourier Transform processing to detect very small targets in dense clutter. The tracking radar is dual I-band/K-band. Sustained automatic comparison of the signal-to-noise ratios of I-band and K-band radar returns ensures uninterrupted tracking and eliminates false targets caused by surface reflection. A threat evaluation and target designation module automatically determines threat priority and initiates target engagement. Contin uous search enables the fast engagement of subsequent targets when multiple targets are available. The gun has a firing rate of 4,200 rounds/min, and 1,190 rounds of ready-use ammuni tion are stored in a feed/storage drum. This provides enough ammunition to engage several targets before reloading. Spent cases or unfired rounds are returned to the drum to avoid above- deck debris. Reloading can be manual or by a rapid bulk loader. Goalkeeper's 30mm seven-barrel GAU-8A cannon can fire up to 4,200 rounds/min, and is surmounted by the tracker radar (left) and the fast-scan search radar The operational ammuni tion is 30mm armour piercing discarding sabot. The project ile comprises a high-density tungsten alloy penetrator. Mass-produced low-cost high- explosive incendiary and training rounds are available for training. RAAF loses helicopters to Army CANBERRA ~ Australian Defence Minister Kim Beazley has made few friends in the Royal Austra lian Air Force by following the tenets of the recent Dibb Report and transferring RAAF battlefield support helicopters to the Army. The transfer decision was made in the face of a Defence Ministry internal review of the Dibb Report and contrary to fierce disagree ment by senior RAAF officers. The review said that such a transfer would prove expensive, as it would mean transferring the helicopter maintenance assets and logis tics chain to the Army. Beazley countered this prob lem by leaving the RAAF responsible for maintenance and logistics, which angered the Air Force even more. The RAAF will retain its ten Boeing Vertol CH-47C Chinooks, but will transfer its 32 Bell UH-1 Iroquois and perhaps some of its 18 Aero spatiale AS.350 Ecureuils which are used for pilot train ing and search and rescue. The UH-ls will be trans ferred progressively over the next five years, and the Army will take delivery of the 14 Sikorsky S-70 Blackhawks ordered by the RAAF as UH-1 replacements from 1988. The S-70 order could eventually run to 60 aircraft. US drug fighters score MIAMI ~ The United States Drug Enforcement Agency, US Customs Service, and US Navy have notched up several successful intercepts on drug smugglers recently. Last week a Cessna 210 carrying 6001b of marijuana was chased 900 n.m. by a US Customs Service Sikorsky UH-60 Blackhawk from off Miami, Florida, to Leesburg, Virginia. This was the longest Blackhawk chase since the helicopter has been used for drug busting. The Cessna, which was fitted with a home-made (and apparently extremely unsafe) internal fuel tank, was first spotted on radar south of Cuba. A US Navy Grumman E-2C Hawkeye was then alerted to track the non- flightplan intruder as it headed to Florida, where it was picked up by a Cessna Citation of the US Customs' Miami Air Branch (MAB). The MAB Citations are equipped with the F-16's Westinghouse APG-66 radar and the P-3C's AN/AAS-36 infrared turret. The Citation called in the Flir and NiteSun equipped Blackhawk with armed officers on board to follow the 210 to its desti nation, Leesburg, about 40 n.m. from Washington D.C. The Blackhawk hovered alongside when it landed and illuminated it by spotlight. The pilot and an accomplice in a pickup truck then tried to escape but were arrested by local police after a car chase, aided by Blackhawk illu mination. In another incident US Customs siezed 1631b of marijuana concealed in fake mail bags on an Air Jamaica Boeing 727. This was the 13th Air Jamaica find in two months. The aircraft has been impounded and Air Jamaica fined $1-3 million. Air Jamaica is expected to appeal. FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL, 27 December 1986
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