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Aviation History
1987
1987 - 1336.PDF
MILITARY AIRCRAFT OF THE WORLD radars for maritime patrol and SAR duties. Customers: Argentina 5, Austria 2, Botswana 2, Ciskei 2, Ecuador 1, Ghana 6, Guyana 2, Indonesia 3, Lesotho 2, Malawi 1, Mauritania 2, Mexico 4, Nepal 4, North Yemen 2, Oman 16, Panama 1, Sharjah 1, Singapore 6, Thai land 3. WESTLAND Lynx The first Lynx airframe modified to Lynx 3 standard flew in June 1984. Changes include the installation of 832kW Gem 60 engines, composite main rotor blades with- paddle tips, and a lengthened fuselage faired into a Westland 30 tailboom. The maximum take-off weight is increased to 5,896kg. Lynx 3 is offered in both Army and Navy versions. The Army Lynx 3 can be armed with eight Hellfire, TOW, or HOT anti-tank missiles, and four Stinger AAMs for self- defence. The Naval model would retain the harpoon deck lock of existing naval Lynx, but would be able to carry a wider range of sensors and weapons, including Sting Ray torpedoes and Sea Skua ASMs. The Lynx 3 will use the MIL1553B databus to integrate a wide range of avionics including a 360°-scan radar, MAD, and dunking sonar in the case of the naval version. A separate development programme involves the Super Lynx, intended for enhanced naval operations, which is based on the standard Lynx airframe. This has 835kW Gem 42 engines, plus a MEL Super Searcher 360°-scan search radar and advanced dunking sonar. A new tail rotor will be fitted, and swept-tip advanced-composite main rotor blades will be optional. Weapons will include Sea Skua and Penguin ASMs, plus Sting Ray torpedoes. The current production version of the Lynx for the British Army is the AH.7, which features improved systems, a composite tail rotor rotating in the opposite direction, and the uprated Gem 41-1 engines of the earlier AH.5. Large numbers of the initial Army variant, the AH.l, remain in use, generally armed with eight TOW missiles aimed via a roof sight. HOT and Hellfire have both been test fired from the standard Lynx. Several naval versions of the Lynx are in service, including the Royal Navy's HAS.2 and HAS.3, powered by Gem 2s and Gem 41-ls respectively. All can carry up to four Sea Skuas plus various homing torpedoes. Racal is devel oping a central tactical system (CTS) for the Royal Navy which processes all sensor infor mation and presents the data on multifunction electronic displays. Also in production is the Lynx Mk.88 for the West German Navy, which has a Bendix AN/AQS-18 sonar and Gem 41-2 engines. Customers: Army Great Britain 127, Qatar 3; Navy Argentina 2, Brazil 9, Denmark 10, France 42, Great Britain 83, Netherlands 24, Nigeria 3, Norway 6, West Germany 19. Sea King The Royal Navy has ordered seven examples of an advanced version of the Sea King, the HAS.6, for service from 1989 in the ASW/ASV role. The HAS.6 is powered by uprated 1092kW Gnome H.1400-1T engines, and has advanced-design composite main and tail rotors, an uprated gearbox, improved radar, and Sea Eagle ASM arma ment. The HAS.6 will join the current fleet of HAS.5s, which have MEL Sea Searcher radar in an enlarged dorsal radome, Tans G coupled to Decca 71 Doppler, and GEC Avionics Lapads acoustic processing equip ment for both sonar and dunking sonar. Earlier Sea King HAS.2s have been upgraded to HAS.5 standard. Essentially the same as the HAS.6 are the 20 Sea King Mk.42Bs ordered for the Indian Navy, which will also be equipped with Sea The Westland Sea King Mk2 AEW has an improved Searchwater radar Eagles and a GEC Avionics AQS-902 acoustic processing system. The Indian Navy has received the first of six Mk.42C utility variants of the advanced Sea King, with nose mounted Bendix RDR-1400C radar. An AEW Sea King, equipped with a Thorn- EMI Searchwater maritime surveillance radar in a retractable radome, has been operational since November 1984. The Searchwater radar gives a 360° scan with a multiple target track- while-scan capability. Ten Sea King AEW.2s are being acquired, all converted HAS.2 airframes. Westland also produces a tactical transport version of the Sea King, known as the Commando, which has a fixed landing gear, can carry up to 28 troops or 2,720kg of cargo, and may be armed for assault duties. The Royal Navy has procured 33 Commandos under the designation Sea King HC.4. Customers: Sea King Australia 12, Belgium 5, Egypt 6, Great Britain 130, India 41, Norway 11, Pakistan 6, West Germany 23, Commando Egypt 28, Great Britain 33, Qatar 12. Westland 30 Planned as a tactical transport and battlefield support helicopter, the military version of the TT300, which first flew in Febru ary 1986, features a five-blade composite main rotor with paddle tips, plus a strengthened undercarriage. Up to 20 troops or 1,360kg of cargo may be carried, and an optional Efis, which is compatible with night vision goggles, is offered. The TT300 is powered by twin l,277kW General Electric CT7 turboshafts, and has a maximum all-up weight of 7,257kg. UNITED STATES ATF Lockheed and Northrop each received a $691 million contract on October 31, 1986, for participation in a competitive fly-off to select a design for the USAF's Advanced Tactical Fighter (ATF) for the mid-1990s. Lockheed (teamed with Boeing and General Dynamics) and Northrop (teamed with McDonnell Douglas) will build prototypes, designated YF-22A and YF-23A respectively, for a fly-off to determine which aircraft will proceed to full-scale development. Each team will construct two prototypes, to be powered by either the Pratt & Whitney YF119 or the General Electric YF120 engine. The four aircraft will be flown in the 50-month demon stration and validation phase of the programme. It is intended that a fully inte grated avionics suite will be tested before the airframes are ready for their first flights in the Autumn of 1989. Key areas to be evaluated in the run-up to and during the fly-off will be low production costs, (the current target flyaway price for production aircraft is $35m in FY1985 dollars), maintainability, reliability, and performance. ATF designs will be required to demonstrate a 50 per cent reduction in maintenance and twice the sortie generation rate of the F-15 Eagle, while the engine will have to be three times more reliable and need 70 per cent less maintenance when compared with the F100 power plant of the F-15 and F-16. These targets are specifically set to make the ATF affordable in the quantities required by keeping procurement and operating costs to realistic minima. The winning design will proceed to a five- year full-scale development phase, aiming for a FSD aircraft first flight in 1993, service entry in 1995/96, and full operational deployment in 1996/97. Current planning envisages a prod uction run of between 750 and 1,000 aircraft. BEECHCRAFT King Air/Super King Air The USAF purchased 40 twin-turboprop Super King Air 200Cs as C-12Fs to meet part of its Operational Support Aircraft requirement following an initial period of lease. Other military versions of the King Air series include the C/UC/RC-12, RU-12, and T-44 for the US forces, together with maritime surveil lance variants produced for export customers, for which search radar, low-light TV, Flir, and acoustic processing equipment are optional. Many standard civilian King Airs are in military service as VIP/staff transports. Customers: Model 90 Bolivia 1, Colombia 2, Ecuador 1, Japan 23, Malawi 1, Mexico 2, Peru 3, Spain 10, Sudan 2, Thailand 2, USA 189, Venezuela 3; Model 100 Algeria 1, Argentina 1, Chile 1, Ecuador 1, Jamaica 1, Morocco 6, Spain 2, Uganda 2; Model 200 Algeria 8, Argentina 10, Bolivia 2, Cote d'lvoire 1, Ecuador 3, Greece 1, Guatemala 1, Guyana 1, Ireland 3, Israel 6, Mexico 1, Morocco 3, Peru 6, Saudi Arabia 1, Sri Lanka 1, Thailand 2, Uruguay 1, USA 312, Venezuela 7; Model 300 Lesotho 1 34 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL, 1 August 1987
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