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Aviation History
1999
1999 - 2833.PDF
DZrEWJB SIGINTP-3 joins East Timor force AUS NAVY EP-3C Orion has joined the International Force in East Timor (INTERFET) to provide support for the monitoring of Indonesian Defence Force and pro-Jakarta militia communica tions, according to US defence officials in Australia. The aircraft has been operating out of Royal Australian Air Force bases in northern Australia since 21 September and is supported by a 40-person signals intelligence analysis team. US officials say that it is normally based in Japan. The USA has also begun deployment of airborne tankers to support air operations within East Timor by INTERFET forces. A Marine Corps Lockheed Martin KC-130 joined the operation on 20 September. Several USAF KC-135s are expected to be de ployed to carry fuel into Dili and Baucau airports from eastern Australia and possibly Singapore. The Baucau airhead was secured in an operation on 22 September that used 12 Australian Army Sikorsky Black Hawk helicopters operating from Dili. The first 72h of INTERFET deployment, launched on 20 Sep tember, saw the Dili-Darwin air bridge transport 2,500 military personnel in 85 return C-130 flights launched from Darwin and Tindal. The airbridge is expected to sus tain an average of 24 flights a day for the foreseeable future. INTERFET has also extended the airbridge to include a direct link between Dili and the RAAF base at Townsville on the Pacific seaboard of Northern Queensland. • NEWS IN BRIEF • PRECISION SHELL The UK Defence Evaluation and Research Agency and Rockwell Collins have com pleted a two-year develop ment and test programme of a global positioning system receiver contained in a 155mm artillery shell. USA gives approval for South American attack helicopter buy CHILE AND Colombia are set to become the first Latin American nations to deploy attack helicopters following recent US Government approval to supply both countries with pricing and availability data for the Bell MH-lWSuperCobra. The US Navy foreign military sales office has responded after price and availability requests were cleared by the State Department. Requests for proposals are to fol low, with Colombia expected to be the first to decide early next year. Colombia requires 12 machines and is also looking at the armed version of Sikorsky UH-60L Black Hawk for anti-drug and counter- insurgency missions. Peru is look ing to purchase 8 to 10 machines, but is conducting a wider evalua tion that includes the Agusta A129 Mangusta, Eurocopter Tiger and DenelCSH-2Rooivalk. Bell is planning to demonstrate the MH-1W in Colombia this year. The helicopter is a multirole version of the US Marine Corps twin-turboshaft AH-1W, fitted with an upgraded forward looking infrared radar, but without the heli copter's precision targeting system. Sikorsky, meanwhile, has sold six UH-60L helicopters to Colombia that had been completed for Venezuela, but which could not be financed. Colombia already oper ates 2 6 Black Hawks. • USCG explores use of armed MD900 helicopters to catch drug runners USCG intercepts drug-run boats with armed Explorer THE US COAST Guard is using armed MD Helicopters Explorers to intercept high-speed drug-smuggling boats in interna tional waters, marking the use of the rotorcraft as a gunship for the first time. The previously secret USCG project, dubbed Operation New Frontier, began in March and has led to the capture of 13 crew mem bers from four boats, netting more than 3t of cocaine. It involves die lease of an undis closed number of twin-turbine MD900 Explorer helicopters (des ignated MH-90 Enforcer by the Coast Guard). Flight International has learned, however, that the USCG will exchange two leased MH-90s for the same number of advanced MD902s, which give performance improvements over the original MD Explorer. The MH-90 is armed with a 0.50 calibre Robar hand-held bolt- action rifle, which is used by sharp shooters to disable the engines of fast-moving drug-running craft in the Caribbean, and a pintle- mounted 7.62mm machine gun at a door station. Should the USCG run a pro curement competition, MD Helicopters hopes to turn the lease into an acquisition programme for between eight and 12 aircraft. The Mexican navy has taken delivery of two unarmed Ex plorers, and the European-owned, US- based, helicopter manufactur er is building two more for use on the Navy's frigates. • Technical problems put back US Navy CL-327 sea trials US NAVY-sponsored sea trials of Bombardier Services' co-axial rotor CL-327 Guardian vertical take-off and landing un manned air vehicle (VTOL UAV) have been delayed by at least a month because of technical prob lems, say USN project officials. The decision to postpone the shipborne flight operations coin cides with Bombardier Services' withdrawal from the race to win a multi-million dollar Navy VTOL UAV procurement contest. (Flight International, 22-28 September). At issue was the CL-327 UAV's readiness to conduct sea trials from a US Coast Guard cutter, begin ning on 2 2 September. A key prob lem involves delay in data transfer between the UAV and the Sierra Research Common Automated Recovery System. According to officials, the CL-327 shipborne demonstration will be useful, despite Bombardier's exit from the VTOL UAV contest. "We will learn a lot from a tech nology standpoint, which is going to help us as we head into prelimi nary and critical design of a pro duction VTOL UAV system," say the officials. • One of two CL-327s on lease to the Australian D efence Force from Bombardier has been destroyed in a crash at the Royal Australian Air Force base Tindal. • 18 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 29 September - 5 October 1999
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