C-130 News: LMUK fleshes out plan to close UK MPA gap with SC-130J Multi-Mission Aircraft

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Lockheed Martin UK (LMUK) has given further details of its pitch to address the United Kingdom's maritime patrol capability gap - as well as other missions - using revitalised Royal Air Force (RAF) C-130J Hercules transport aircraft that would otherwise be heading out of service around 2022.

LMUK's proposal effectively leverages both its parent company's position as the original equipment manufacturer of the C-130J plus LMUK's experience as prime contractor in upgrading the Royal Navy's Merlin HM.1 multimission maritime helicopters to HM.2 standard under the Merlin Capability Sustainment Programme.

The plan is to "take aircraft in service that are tried and tested and marry that up with all the best technology available from the Merlin Mk 2, and then build on that with a range of different sensors", Keith Muir, the company's business development manager for airborne mission systems, told IHS Jane's in the run-up to this year's DSEI exhibition.

Muir explained that, in forming its concept, LMUK had "looked at the totality of the requirement, including ISR [intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance] and special forces support", and in addressing that using existing assets and infrastructure had come up with a "low-risk solution that is extremely cost-effective".

The resulting platform, the 'SC-130J Multi-Mission Aircraft (MMA)', would be able to conduct ISR missions over land as well as sea. Although the mission fit for the platform has been designed to be modular, allowing it to be reconfigured "from open cargo space to high-end system in a day", Muir said he believed the aircraft would "become so operationally in demand that [their high-end mission configuration] will become a semi-permanent fit, so probably only the back third [of the cargo area] would end up being tailorable". He said, "That could be done in a matter of hours."

Interestingly, the SC-130J MMA would go beyond the provision of maritime patrol to offer a full anti-submarine warfare (ASW) capability. The concept allows for the dispensing of sonobuoys and includes a pair of conformal sponsons that could accommodate the full UK inventory of light- and medium-weight torpedoes. These would be located either side of the fuselage, ahead of the landing gear, and have even been modelled as reducing overall drag on the aircraft. Missiles - either anti-ship weapons or air-to-air missiles for self-defence - could also be carried on outer wing hardpoints.

LMUK is anticipating a full suite of sensors being carried on the aircraft, but has not specified any of them in advance of a maritime patrol aircraft (MPA) requirement being defined by the UK Ministry of Defence's (MoD's) Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR).

"We won't be prescriptive on that," said Muir. "The government is expected to announce the requirement post-SDSR and we will tailor our solution to match that." He noted that the MoD was "doing the work on that in ahead of an announcement expected in the November timeframe".

RAF C-130Js taken up to be converted into SC-130J MMAs would have their central wing boxes replaced by the UK's Marshall Aerospace, effectively putting them back to zero hours and allowing them to stay in service for another 20 to 25 years.

Other UK subcontractors would include Thales, Ultra Electronics, and Selex in a program that LMUK says would be 80% UK-sourced, ITAR-free, and would sustain around 1,000 jobs in the UK supply chain.

View original article at IHS Janes 360

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