By Chris Thatcher | November 8, 2016 Estimated reading time 7 minutes, 12 seconds.
A Royal Canadian Air Force CH-148 Cyclone helicopter has conducted its first above water warfare test, verifying the capability of its new mission systems to identify and track surface vessels and aircraft.
The mission system tests were performed last week along the eastern seaboard of the United States as part of Exercise Spartan Warrior, a Canadian-led tactical training exercise focused on interoperability with U.S. and Spanish allies.
Embarking a CH-148 aboard the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) frigate HMCS Montreal marked the first deployment of newly acquired Sikorsky-built Cyclones in a complex international exercise and was part of the helicopter’s ongoing operational test and evaluation (OT&E) being conducted by the Helicopter Test and Evaluation Facility (HOTEF) at 12 Wing Shearwater, N.S.
While Spartan Warrior involved a number of joint warfare scenarios, including an advanced war-at-sea scenario, the Cyclone did not participate in the actual exercise. The aircrew of the CH-148, one of three capability release 1.1 variants of the Cyclone now at 12 Wing, used the force structure of the exercise that included seven surface vessels, submarines, other helicopters and maritime patrol aircraft, to evaluate the mission systems and data transmission under operational conditions.
“Our primary focus [was] the above water warfare mission suite–the radar, electro-optics, data link–those things that allow us to extend the eyes and ears of the [navy] fleet, provide them the maritime picture they need to conduct operations,” Capt Mikal (Mike) Houston, the lead project officer for the Cyclone test program, told Skies during a brief stop in Florida.
Tests included assessments of the individual systems and the development of “procedures to operate the system as a whole within the current naval environment,” said Houston.
The exercise also provided the RCN training time to further adapt its procedures and personnel to the highly advanced CH-148. Montreal is one of 12 Halifax-class frigates to recently undergo a modernization and life extension program that has greatly improved the performance and technological capabilities of each ship. The frigate, the first to support a HOTEF detachment, has been designated by the RCN as its experimental ship–or X-Ship–under a program to “advance innovative and leading-edge naval concepts” in everything from warship deployment to crewing and sustainment.
“They have been impressed so far,” said Houston. “The Cyclone definitely brings a lot of new capabilities to the table that they did not have previously with the (CH-124) Sea King.”
“It’s been a good opportunity to work on integration with the fleet,” added Maj Erik Weigelin, the air detachment commander. “There are a lot of positive results coming out of this, and I think the navy sees there is a lot of potential that exists in this platform. They are starting to think about [how they can] make use of our capability. It’s a good sign of things to come.”
The technological leap from the Sea King to the Cyclone will be more significant for the air force, which has gone from “our 1960s Mustang to a Tesla self-drive car,” Weigelin noted.
Not only is the warfare suite far beyond anything the helicopter crews have operated before, the introduction of fly-by-wire could change how pilots manage missions.
“We are able to let the aircraft pretty much manage itself,” continued Weigelin. “It provides us a lot of flexibility and accuracy. The mission team sends us a pattern or position to fly; we can program the aircraft to be there on time, on target, and it frees up a lot of our capacity to concentrate on mission elements as opposed to flying.”
That may ultimately lead to changes in crewing and crew roles, but for now the operational test and evaluation is to be conducted under a legacy crew construct.
“The potential for [changes to crew roles] certainly exists,” said Weigelin. “One of the things through the testing that we will have a chance to observe is the workload and [we can] determine where we might be able to shift tactical workloads away from what has been the traditional role. But we’re not there yet.”
While there were no surprises with any of the Cyclone’s systems during Spartan Warrior, “every day that we test, we are learning new things,” he said.
Above water warfare is just the latest mission feature to be evaluated. In September, the RCAF conducted the first test of the CH-148’s anti-submarine warfare (ASW) systems while training with HMCS Windsor off the coast of Nova Scotia.
The helicopter tested its sonobuoy processing system by deployed passive sonobuoys to detect and track the Victoria-class submarine.
“This system allows us to track submarines without making any active noise, thereby denying the submarine knowledge of the helicopter’s location or potentially even the fact that they are being tracked at all,” said Weigelin, adding that HOTEF now has a “solid baseline of performance for the tracking of real submarine targets.”
To further develop tactical procedures, the aircrews also used expendable mobile ASW training targets to simulate submarine movement and noise patterns.
In total, the CH-148 conducted 24 hours of flight tests during the exercise. To date, HOTEF has completed around 100 hours of OT&E.
While Spartan Warrior will continue for another week, HMCS Montreal and the Cyclone have detached from the exercise task group and are now transiting home to Halifax. But over the next several days, both ship and helicopter will continue to evaluate the CH-148’s above water warfare suite.
