Contract allows Apache crews to focus on Afghanistan

The new £439m Integrated Operation Support (IOS) contract has been awarded to AgustaWestland, whose engineers and technicians provide maintenance for the Apache.

The contract, which is similar to recent ones awarded for the maintenance of Merlin, Sea King, and Chinook helicopters, means that, while industry maintains the aircraft at home, the British military's Apache engineers are freed up to deploy to Afghanistan where they can keep the aircraft in the air, supporting operations almost around the clock.

The award of the contract was announced yesterday, Tuesday 6 October 2009, by Minister for Defence Equipment and Support, Quentin Davies, at Wattisham Airfield in Suffolk, where 3 and 4 Regiment Army Air Corps, who operate the helicopter in Afghanistan on a rotational basis, are based.

Wattisham is also where the Apache Depth Support Unit (DSU) is located, which 18 months ago was run by military technicians but is now run by 180 AgustaWestland engineers who service each of the UK's 67 Apache aircraft after each one has completed 600 flying hours.

Run on a production line principle, the DSU is the engine room of the Apache where an individual helicopter will be stripped, inspected, rectified, rebuilt and tested in 64 days. There are nine Apaches moving through here all the time with 27 being given a full service each year.

Colonel David Turner, the Apache Force Commander, explained the importance of handing over the running of the DSU to industry:

"In the front line we are doing servicing at more frequent periods. We do servicing at 50 hours and 100 hours. We don't take it apart completely but we open the panels, we check the engines, gear box, rotor blades, we check all the systems.

"It all goes from daily flight servicing. Every aircraft is checked on a daily basis; you wouldn't fly it until it had been checked by a technician, so there's a huge burden of maintenance effort still required on the front line and I need the soldiers from here to move to that effort and that's happening.

"To allow AgustaWestland to take over the DSU and now to take over the provisioning of all spares and equipment allows us to focus again more tightly on the operation."

Explaining further the importance of the contract Col Turner added:

"It focuses our attention on operations rather than returning all the time to support activity and it hands the risk of support activity to the experts at AgustaWestland and allows us to get on with the job which is basically training our people, our aircrew, our ground crew and our Army technicians to look at the operational picture and prepare for that."

Mr Davies, addressing the staff of the DSU yesterday, paid tribute to the operators of the Apache:

"On behalf of the whole Government and on behalf of all the whole country I would like to pay tribute to the men and women of the Army Air Corps for the superb job that they do and the men and women from Wattisham who are flying our operational Apaches."

The Apache attack helicopter can operate in all weathers, day and night, and can detect, classify and prioritise up to 256 potential targets in seconds through its Fire Control Radar. It carries a mix of weapons, including rockets, Hellfire missiles and a 30mm chain gun.

Mr Davies continued:

"There is no doubt that our campaign in Afghanistan, which is a steady success, like any good sword has two cutting edges. One cutting edge is our immensely brave infantry, including paratroopers, Royal Marines and the RAF Regiment. The other cutting edge is our airpower, particularly the close air support, and in that area the Apache is absolutely decisive.

"I can say without any exaggeration at all that there's not been a battle we've fought in Afghanistan in which Apache hasn't played an absolutely decisive role and every day the Apache fleet are saving the lives of our infantry soldiers in Afghanistan and of course they are taking out an enormous number of the enemy.

"That kind of operation requires the very highest degree of precision of training, of coolness under fire, the ability to make the right decisions under tremendous stress while controlling these enormously complex machines with their suite of sensors and great firepower.

"It is an immensely burdensome professional task but it's one that is carried out with stunning professionalism and success by the men and women who live and work at Wattisham."

Col Turner gave his thoughts on why the Apache is so important to operations in Afghanistan:

"You've got two things, situational awareness and firepower, and I would qualify firepower to be precision firepower, accurate firepower. This aircraft has sensor systems on it that give you a situational awareness that nobody else has.

"We have a range of capabilities here that allow us to look at the battlefield at night, in difficult terrain, and give us a clear picture of what is below us.

"We can then give a picture of what we see to everyone on the ground and it gives them a better feel for what's going on around them; we can then use that situational awareness to employ the weapons which are very much force protection measures.

"We've identified the enemy, bring in the Apache. It doesn't have to drive down roads and meet the IED [improvised explosive device] threat; it can be over someone's head in a few minutes."

Regarding the IOS contract itself for the Apache and the other helicopters Mr Davies added:

"These IOS contracts are achieving a better distribution of risks between ourselves and our suppliers. We want to take our suppliers further in the direction of availability rather than just supplying some hardware and spares.

"We're advancing the frontiers of availability contracting the whole time and it's in everybody's interests. AgustaWestland have security and know where the cash flow is coming from and what is required of them for the next few years, while for us it means an awful lot of the risks are taken off our shoulders.

"And as far as our operational training squadron is concerned it is really a complete availability arrangement. We don't even bother to think about the machines, we just turn up and fly them, and AgustaWestland have got them all ready for us when we need them."

Col Turner concluded:

"I've got more aircraft now available for training than I've ever had and that's all because the military guys from here have gone forward. I can now do far more here at Wattisham than I've ever been able to do and give the pilots in the UK the training hours they need to prepare for operations."