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CH-148 Cyclone Progress

Watch out for single sourcing Merlins HM2!

If I was the Government, I would want this matter off the table, done and over with and deliveries starting RFN so that it would not be an issue that becomes embroiled with the F-35 fiasco at the time of the next election.
 
drunknsubmrnr said:
Is the GDC MH suite fully debugged?

My apologies, but can a civvie request clarification on the acronym: GDC MH?


Thanks in advance, Matthew.  :salute:
 
Cdn Blackshirt said:
My apologies, but can a civvie request clarification on the acronym: GDC MH?


Thanks in advance, Matthew.  :salute:

Google says it means "General Dynamics Canada MH suite."  :)
 
It's the General Dynamics Canada Maritime Helicopter electronics suite. It's all the elctronics bits like the radar, mission computer, weapons interfaces etc.

To my knowledge, the mission suite they're planning to install in the CH-148 is brand new and has never flown in an aircraft before. I might be wrong on that, I don't follow it closely.
 
Information about the process is being closely held but here is what I know along with a personal assessment of the options:

The RFI was issued only to three OEMs - Sikorsky, Eurocopter and AgustaWestland.

Sikorsky was asked to provide information (cost, schedule and technical) for the USN MH-60R Seahawk; however, this product is apparently only available via a US DoD FMS procurement and would likely be an ITAR headache.  It uses a Lockheed Martin IMS very similar to the one integrated in the RN Merlin Mk2. 

Eurocopter was asked to provide information (cost, schedule and technical) for the NFH-90; however, this is not a Eurocopter product (it is produced by NHI) and, at any rate, Eurocopter would only be able to respond with the French Navy version of the NFH-90 mission system at best.

AgustaWestland was asked to provide information (cost, schedule and technical) for the AW159 (Wildcat) and the AW101.  The Merlin (EH101) versions are no longer built.  They have been superceded by the new AW101-600 series.  Therefore,  Agusta Westland wpuld be able to offer a new-build AW101-600 naval or naval utility variant with the new Italian Navy IMS (which exceeds the capabilities of both the Merlin Mk2 and CH149 GDC IMS), or the Lockheed Martin IMS fitted in Merlin Mk2.

All alternative contenders could accept the Cyclone GDC IMS but integration of it would require some development work that Canada would most likely want to avoid at this juncture.
 
Yeah, but that is all predicated on Canada's minions not adding in the extras to Canadianize it like they did the CH-148 Cyclone
 
The new target date for recommendations to Cabinet on the way ahead for MHP is now nlt Friday 15 November.  From my experience in the puzzle palace, this means a decision could possibly be announced before Christmas.  The only other piece of info available right now is that the recommended way ahead must be (by decree) a choice between the two options that were placed on the table back in September.
 
rathawk said:
The new target date for recommendations to Cabinet on the way ahead for MHP is now nlt Friday 15 November.  From my experience in the puzzle palace, this means a decision could possibly be announced before Christmas.  The only other piece of info available right now is that the recommended way ahead must be (by decree) a choice between the two options that were placed on the table back in September.

Sorry rathawk,

Can you clarify?  In your previous post I interpretted it that there were four ways forward:  1. Original Path with Cyclone, 2. Sikorsky MH-60, 3. The AW 101 and 4. The NH-90?


Thanks in advance, Matthew.
 
The options that can be put forward for decision are reported to be limited to:

(1) terminate MHP (two contracts: Acquisition and ISS) for cause in accordance with the current contract terms and conditions for Contractor non-performance; or

(2) accept the non-performance and amend the MHP contract(s) terms and conditions (as recommended by the HITACHI report) to significantly change the delivery schedule and reduce or remove the oriiginal MHP 2003 performance requirements that the Cyclone cannot meet to date.

In early October 2013, PWGSC and DND jointly identified four alternative platforms in the event that option 1 was the outcome.  You have correctly identified three of those.. the fourth one selected by PWGSC/DND was the AW159 Wildcat; however, my understanding is that at least three of those four have now been judged deficient based upon the responses to the RFI that were submitted to PWGSC and DND on 22 October.
 
The following story appeared in several papers today, shared here in accordance with the Fair Dealing provisions (§29) of the Copyright Act.  A colleague at NDHQ has described it to me as a potential "tipping point" and added that it (the Cyclone) is hanging on the edge of the cliff.

DND warned in 2004 about Cyclone helicopters’ performance issues, files show
MURRAY BREWSTER
OTTAWA — The Canadian Press
4 November 2013

Canadian air force evaluators warned nearly a decade ago that the CH-148 Cyclone helicopter might not measure up in terms of engine performance, acoustic noise and its ability to resist electronic interference, The Canadian Press has learned.
Previously unreleased National Defence reports that date back to September 2004, recently viewed by CP, cite a litany of concerns about Sikorsky’s plan to convert its existing S-92 helicopter for maritime and military missions.
The highly technical appraisals were conducted by a team of dozens of air force engineers before then prime minister Paul Martin awarded what was at the time a $1.8-billion contract.
Yet, despite the concerns and the fact that some aspects of Sikorsky’s plan were declared “non-compliant,” the bid was allowed to proceed based on the assumption the company would be able to overcome the existing problems.
The red flags that were set down by engineers, based on some 475 different evaluation criteria, proved prescient in identifying major issues that have plagued and ultimately delayed the program to the point where the Harper government is now considering scrapping it.
Nonetheless, the program has progressed significantly since the evaluation documents were first produced nearly 10 years ago, Paul Jackson, a spokesman for the U.S. aircraft maker, said Sunday.
“Sikorsky has either demonstrated ready solutions or fully resolved any technical issues raised in early technical reports,” Jackson said in an e-mail.
“The CH-148 Cyclone is the world’s most advanced maritime helicopter, bar none. We continue to make solid progress toward completing this program and delivering unrivalled capability to the Canadian Forces.”
Officials from the Department of National Defence did not respond to a detailed series of written questions provided Friday about the technical reports, as well as the possible implications of scrapping the deal.
The Harper government, which is looking at other helicopters, is expected to decide later this month whether to continue with the program.
In terms of the evaluation of the Cyclone engine’s airworthiness, the reports show the company was given the benefit of the doubt in 2004 since it had not yet built a military version of the aircraft.
“Sikorsky did not provide some of the [proof of certification] material as required,” said the evaluation. “However, the material presented is generally judged to meet the intent of the [Maritime Helicopter Requirement Specifications] requirement.”
Evaluators were skeptical about the amount of testing hours devoted to the engine, and rated the risk to the bid as “medium.”
Years later, however, the issue resurfaced when it became clear the heavier military requirements made the Cyclones sluggish and less efficient in the air. In 2010, Sikorsky announced it would upgrade the engine to a more powerful model, the CT7-8A7, and the Harper government agreed to spend an additional $117-million to support the plan.
Evaluators also raised questions about the helicopter’s ability to stay airborne in the event of a catastrophic loss of oil. The report noted that the S-92 “failed on the initial test and did not meet the 30-minute” run-dry requirement – something that would become significant in 2009 with the crash of an S-92 off Newfoundland that killed 17 oil workers and flight crew.
A Transportation Safety Board investigation concluded that two of three titanium studs that secure the oil filter bowl assembly to the helicopter’s main gearbox sheared off mid-flight. The board’s final report said the resulting loss of oil pressure was one of a “complex web” of factors that contributed to the crash.
It also recommended that all Sikorsky S-92 helicopters be able to run without oil in their main gearboxes for 30 minutes.
Defence sources recently questioned the Cyclone’s ability to withstand intense electromagnetic fields, the kind generated by military-grade radar. In 2004, air force engineers raised questions about the interference, which has the potential to blank out instruments.
“The [High Intensity Radiated Fields] has still not been rectified to match up with the [Maritime Helicopter Requirement Specifications],” one of the evaluators wrote on Sept. 8, 2004.
Since Sikorsky had not yet converted the helicopter to military specifications, it acknowledged the government would have to trust it to meet the requirement.
“The bidder has stated here that the testing cannot be completed until final aircraft assembly, at a proper site (in this case Patuxent River, Maryland, USA or Canadian equivalent).”
The evaluation report also raised questions about acoustic noise and the Cyclone’s ability to land and take off from the pitching deck of a warship at sea.
In some cases, Sikorsky told National Defence it would provide more information after the contract was signed, leading one evaluator to note that “it was up to DND management to decide if DND is ready to accept the risk of not having a [basis of compliance] as clearly defined as possible before signing a contract with the winning bidder.”
After Sikorsky won the contract, rival bidder AgustaWestland cried foul, citing politics: 10 years before the Martin government, Jean Chrétien’s Liberals cancelled a contract with the company to buy EH-101 helicopters. In 2004, the company offered up the AW-101 – a variant of the original, but still close enough to be politically uncomfortable.
Alan Williams, the senior defence bureaucrat in charge of the Cyclone purchase at the time, said AgustaWestland’s bid was “non-compliant” and dismissed as nonsense any suggestion that the political fix was in for Sikorsky.
“They blew it. They were clearly non-compliant and they know it,” Williams said in an interview with The Canadian Press. “They didn’t do a good enough job.”
Williams’ comment was met with a firm denial by AgustaWestland, which said in a statement late Sunday that “at no point did the Government of Canada declare that the AW101 was non-compliant.”
“The aircraft met all of the performance and equipment requirements of the original Request for Proposals, then and now, and Mr. Williams knows this,” the statement said.
What exactly the company did wrong, Williams was not prepared to say, but he insisted the Liberal government of the day never exerted pressure on him to favour one bid over another.
He acknowledged the concerns presented in the pre-qualification report, but noted that it was just the first kick at the tires.
“Unless it’s a really, really black-and-white thing, in the pre-qualification you’re not going to eliminate people.”
Williams said he pressured engineers in a number of closed-door meetings to assure him that Sikorsky could make the leap from civilian to maritime military helicopter.
“They said: ‘It’s not a slam dunk.’ But the thinking was that it could be done, and so I didn’t feel we didn’t have cause to rule them non-compliant even though I knew that this wasn’t a slam dunk.”
Williams acknowledged that he could be blamed for “picking something that turns out to be non-deliverable.”
He left the defence purchasing office shortly after the contract award, but added that had he been there in 2006 when it became apparent the program was in trouble, he would have recommended it be cancelled.
“If the government thought the contract was non-deliverable, it did the one thing it should never have done, it let [Sikorsky] off the hook,” Williams said. “It would have been much smarter to do what they might do now” and cancel it.
When former defence minister Peter MacKay described the Cyclones as the “worst” procurement in government history, “quite frankly he made it into the worst procurement,” Williams added.
The Cyclones were supposed to be on the flight line in 2008, but Sikorsky has delivered only a handful of choppers for testing.
The federal government has refused to accept those helicopters, currently parked at the Canadian Forces facility in Shearwater, N.S., on the basis they are “non-compliant.”
Former auditor-general Sheila Fraser trashed the program a few years ago in a report that set out in painstaking detail how Martin’s Liberal government agreed to buy what are essentially undeveloped helicopters.
The theme cropped up again last month in a leaked independent report that the Harper government commissioned. The analysis said the helicopters were essentially still in development and the federal government should attempt to salvage the program within 90 days.
So far, the federal government claims it is owed $88.6-million by Sikorsky in penalties for contract violations.

- mod edit to add link to article, full-text Copyright Act disclaimer -
 
Looks like we're getting closer and closer to sticking with the Cyclone.

http://www.verticalmag.com/news/article/26111#.Uqvjj2RDuq8

[quote author=Vertical Mag]
Despite ongoing uncertainty about Sikorsky Aircraft’s schedule for supplying fully-compliant CH-148 Cyclone maritime helicopters to the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), the chairman of Sikorsky’s parent company, United Technologies, remains cautiously confident about the program.

A couple of minutes into Louis Chenevert’s presentation to investors and analysts in New York, anticipating questions about the Cyclones, he opted to “take this head on” by showing a PowerPoint image of one Cyclone taking off and two others taxiing at 12 Wing Shearwater, N.S. Shearwater will be the primary base for the Cyclone, operated by 406 Maritime Operational Training Squadron and 423 Maritime Helicopter Squadron. 443 Maritime Helicopter Squadron will also operate the Cyclone on the West Coast from Patricia Bay.

“The current status is: we have four helicopters at . . . Shearwater that are being utilized for initial training,” Chenevert said, adding that six more are being held in Plattsburgh, N.Y., pending RCAF acceptance of what the Canadian government still considers an “interim” maritime helicopter.

“We have 28 helicopters in the build process, which is the totality of the helicopter commitment,” he continued. “We’ve started preliminary operational testing and evaluation; we’re allowing the pilots and the maintainers, really, to learn more about the aircraft and its capabilities.”

Shortly after the latest deadline for acceptance of the helicopters expired, there was a rumor that the government had told its caucus the procurement would be cancelled because of ongoing technical problems, but Chenevert said that “we’re continuing to have productive discussion with the Canadian government.”

He said the plan still was for official delivery of eight aircraft in 2013, followed by eight more each in 2014 and 2015. “Obviously there’ll be an EPS (earnings-per-share) upside if those helicopters are not sold this year, but the eight and eight and eight that we described before still holds true at this point in time.”

In Ottawa Dec. 13, Public Works and Government Services Minister Diane Finley, whose department is the government’s purchasing arm, was unable to provide any more details. She did confirm to reporters that “we are in discussions with Sikorsky” to determine “if we can put together a plan to go forward.”[/quote]
 
While smoke signal seem to support that direction, this government has been known to change it's mind at the last minute and head off in another direction without much warning.
 
Looks like they are moving forward.

http://skiesmag.com/news/article/Government-of-Canada-to-continue-with-Maritime-Helicopter-Pr#.Usc8BHi9Kc3
 
Nice Friday afternoon, quiet news release....

http://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/ottawa-to-start-retiring-sea-kings-in-2015-won-t-scrap-cyclone-purchase-1.1617194



 
Infanteer said:
Nice Friday afternoon, quiet news release....

http://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/ottawa-to-start-retiring-sea-kings-in-2015-won-t-scrap-cyclone-purchase-1.1617194

I'm going to take it as read that the Sikorsky donkey understood the concept of a 2x4 between the eyes. 

Equally the government or its agents have accepted some watered wine.  If  the CH-148s do nothing other than handle vertrep, SAR, anti-piracy patrols and logistics movements in their early days surely they are contributing?

The development of the 148 as an ASW platform can take a little longer.
 
Infanteer said:
Nice Friday afternoon, quiet news release.....
Right at 1700 Eastern, in fact - this from the info-machine:
Government of Canada to continue with Maritime Helicopter Project and begin retiring Sea Kings in 2015

OTTAWA, Ontario, January 3, 2014 – Given ongoing challenges with the Maritime Helicopter Project, the Government of Canada commissioned an independent third party, Hitachi Consulting, to determine the viability of the program. The Government accepts the recommendations in the third-party report, which found that the program would be viable with a different project structure and governance model. Today, the Government of Canada and Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation announced that a Principles of Agreement (POA), which will form the basis of formal contract negotiations to put those recommendations into place, was concluded on December 31, 2013.

“The decision to continue with the Maritime Helicopter Project is consistent with our goals of getting the Canadian Armed Forces the equipment they need while protecting the investments taxpayers have already made in this program,” said the Honourable Rob Nicholson, Minister of National Defence. “The Royal Canadian Air Force has been providing guidance in determining operational priorities through the newly established Integrated Product Teams comprised of team leaders from Sikorsky and General Dynamics Canada, as recommended by the third party.”  Under the terms of the POA, Canada will see delivery of helicopters with operational capability sufficient to begin retirement of Sea Kings in 2015, and a program to enhance those capabilities culminating in a fully capable CH 148 Cyclone Maritime Helicopter in 2018.

“Under the new terms established in the Principles of Agreement, Sikorsky has committed to deliver the needed helicopter capability at no additional cost to Canada,” said the Honourable Diane Finley, Minister of Public Works and Government Services. “In addition, the Government of Canada will only issue further payment to Sikorsky upon capability delivery. This is the right path forward for the Canadian Armed Forces and taxpayers.” Sikorsky has agreed to pay Canada $88.6 million in liquidated damages for non-delivery.

“As the pre-eminent helicopter manufacturer in the world, we regret that we have not executed this program to the satisfaction of the Government of Canada and that no aircraft were delivered in 2013,” said Mick Maurer, President of Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation. “We recognize that we and our sub-contractors must do better. We have completely restructured our approach, and added considerable new resources and technical expertise. As a result of the third-party review commissioned by the Government of Canada, we believe we have the right plan in place to deliver the most capable maritime helicopter in the world.”

The restructured program will see the continuation of the initial training and testing of the Cyclone now underway in Shearwater, Nova Scotia. Hitachi Consulting will remain engaged in the project to ensure delivery of a fully capable maritime helicopter.
 
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