Ysterplaat key to tackling poaching, pollution and piracy threats

By: Keith Campbell

Air Force Base (AFB) Ysterplaat, in Cape Town, is one of the most important air bases in South Africa. It, and its assigned squadrons and units, are the custodians of both some of the most modern and advanced, and some of the oldest, technologies in use with the South African Air Force (SAAF).

"We are the centre for maritime excellence for the SAAF," highlights the officer commanding (OC) AFB Ysterplaat, Colonel Bill Cowan.

"We support the maritime air squadrons and other units on the base with administration, logistics and command support. The squadrons report to me, and I report directly to the general officer commanding: air command. Effectively, Ysterplaat is the country's maritime air wing, only we don't call it that. But we also do landward operations, in the coastal regions." Although the SAAF has other coastal bases, it is Ysterplaat that houses the SAAF's major maritime assets.

Coastal Eyrie
The base is home to five major units, namely 22 Squadron (Sqdn), 35 Sqdn, 80 Air Navigation School (ANS), 2 Air Servicing Unit (Detached) and 505 Protection Sqdn, plus a satellite facility of the SAAF Museum, the main facility of which is located in Pretoria.

While South Africa, as a country, may currently face no threats, the same cannot be said of the country's marine resources. Poaching, overfishing and pollution are real and present dangers. AFB Ysterplaat and its units play a key role in preventing, detecting and combating these dangers along the country's entire coastline.

Moreover, Somali pirates have begun to operate in the northern part of the Mozambique channel, and Mozambique, which effectively has no navy and almost no air force, has invoked a memorandum of understanding between that country and South Africa to request assistance to meet the threat. It is AFB Ysterplaat and its squadrons which are responsible for providing the SAAF component of this assistance.

"Coordination with the South African Navy (SAN) is through Joint Operations Command," explains Cowan. "However, for training, we have the Force Preparation Forum, in which the SAN and the squadrons sit together and work on the training and force preparation requirements for both the SAN and the SAAF. These requirements are passed on to the SAAF/SAN Forum for approval. Sometimes, the requirements come the other way - down from the SAAF/SAN Forum to the Force Preparation Forum. Once these requirements have been agreed, there is direct liaison between the squadrons and the ships concerned."

Ysterplaat is also responsible for search and rescue (SAR) missions over South Africa's huge oceanic SAR responsibility zone, which stretches about halfway to South America in the west, nearly halfway to Australia in the east, and all the way to Antarctica to the south.

In addition, it undertakes overland SAR and provides aid to the civil power, such as helping in firefighting and supporting police operations.

"Our operating budget is adequate," he reports. "The serviceability of our aircraft has increased. Flyingwise, we have no issues. We work well with [nearby] Cape Town International Airport. I would like to see the acquisition of a new maritime patrol aircraft for maritime surveillance and SAR."

Regarding challenges, "this is an old base", he points out. Ysterplaat marks its seventieth birthday this year. "The water system needs upgrading - likewise, the electricity supply and some of the buildings." Another, never-ending challenge is posed by the salt-laden sea air which permanently blankets the base and in which its aircraft operate almost all the time. This increases the amount of maintenance that needs to be done, not only on the aircraft (which have to be frequently and thoroughly washed) but on the base infrastructure as well. Scheduled improvements for the base include the acquisition of new fire tenders, new fuel bunkers and the resurfacing of the runways.

Sea Cats and Aquatic Antelopes
Among SAAF helicopter units, 22 Sqdn is unique. "We are the only true maritime helicopter squadron in the SAAF," says squadron OC Lieutenant Colonel (Lt Col) Willie van Aswegen. "We're not only maritime - we operate over land as well. But only 22 Sqdn does shipboard operations."

And 22 Sqdn is also the home of one of the most modern and technologically advanced aircraft in today's SAAF - the AgustaWestland Super Lynx 300 shipboard helicopter. This was acquired specifically to operate from the SAN's four Valour-class frigates. The squadron is equipped with four Lynx and, usually, six Denel Oryx transport and utility helicopters (the number of Oryx can vary, according to requirements).

"We're the only squadron carrying the Lynx," he emphasises. "The Lynx has had a major impact on our operations. It's changing the way we do operations. It's a very proficient machine. We like to brag about it! The technologies employed in the Lynx are world class. But that makes it a costly aircraft."

To facilitate its operation from small ships, the Lynx is fitted with a deck-lock system with a ventrally mounted ‘harpoon' that engages a grid set in the flight deck. This is extended and engaged after landing and disengaged and retracted during take-off. This means that the aircraft does not have to be secured by the deck crew when it lands, making the landing process both faster and safer.

The SAAF Lynxes are each powered by two LHTEC CTS800-4N turboshaft engines (LHTEC is a 50:50 joint venture between Rolls-Royce and Honeywell), but, in an emergency, the aircraft can fly on a single engine. The CTS800 family first entered service in 2001, and the CTS800-4N version delivers 1 362 shaft horsepower. Fitted with dual channel Full Authority Digital Engine Control systems, providing redundancy in the case of failure or battle damage, it is one of the most modern engines in use by the SAAF today.

The Lynx is also fitted with Berp IV rotor blades. These, developed under the British Experimental Rotor Programme, have broad ‘paddle' tips which increase both the helicopter's load carrying capacity and maximum speed. It is the most advanced rotor design in service with the SAAF, and they are only fitted to the Lynx.

The Lynx also has a fully digital, or glass, cockpit, with four primary display screens which provide flight, navigation, radar and other sensor information, as well as two other screens displaying engine and systems monitoring data. The avionics are managed by twin integrated Thales UK Control Display and Navigation Units which use modern databus technology.

The Lynx is fitted with an automatic flight control system, an embedded global positioning system/inertial navigation system, a direction finding (DF) system, an altitude and heading reference system, an air data system, a doppler navigation system, and a Very High Frequency Omnidirectional Range and a Distance Measuring Equipment system (better known as VOR/DME). It also has an emergency control panel.

If anything, the operational systems it carries are even more important. "The platform - or aircraft - wasn't the big requirement. The key capabilities are the radar, the Electronic Optical Sighting System (EOSS) and the datalink," highlights 22 Sqdn Lynx Flight commander Major Gees Basson. "We become the airborne extension of the frigate's sensors."

The primary sensor is the Telephonics APS-143C(V)3 OceanEye radar, which is mounted under the nose. This, and the Saab EDS PS-05A radar fitted to the Gripen fighter, are the most advanced airborne radars in use with the SAAF today. The OceanEye has automatic detection and tacking capability, as well as synthetic aperture radar and inverse synthetic aperture radar imaging modes. It has four standard operating modes: search, small target, weather and SAR transponder beacon.

The EOSS can be used to confirm a radar contact or as a passive sensor with the radar switched off (radar emissions can be detected electronic support measures - ESM - equipment). The SAAF Lynx is also equipped with a Forward Looking Infrared (Flir) system, an ESM system and an Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) system.

A significant amount of the mission systems carried on the SAAF Lynxes are South African. The Flir is Carl Zeiss Optronics South Africa's Argos 410-M, and the same company provides the gimbal for the EOSS; the ESM is Sysdel's Sea Raven; and the IFF is the Tellumat PT-2000. The communications systems are also largely South African, including two very/ultrahigh frequency (V/UHF) radios from Reutech Defence Industries, a high-frequency radio from Grintek and a datalink from Thales Advanced Engineering.

Because of their sophistication and capability, the mission systems have a dedicated operator, known as the tactical coordinator (Tacco). "This allows the pilot to concentrate on the flying and the Tacco to concentrate on the mission," explains Basson.

The Lynx has a maximum takeoff weight of 5 330 kg and a normal operating speed of 120 knots (nautical miles per hour). Operating in the surveillance role, which is its primary mission with the SAAF, it has a range of some 300 nautical miles and an endurance of more than two-and-a-half hours. In the transport role, it can carry up to six passengers. It can also carry out SAR, casualty evacuation, and vertical replenishment (flying supplies to ships) missions.

"We are working towards night rescue capability," he reports. "The Lynx will probably be the only SAAF helicopter that will be able to do night rescues. It takes time and needs a lot of skills to do this. It requires the use of night vision goggles (NVGs), as a person floating in the sea is too small a target for the radar or EOSS."

Although the Lynx can be armed with missiles, torpedoes and depth charges, the SAAF has not yet acquired any of these weapons and 22 Sqdn's aircraft are armed only with door-mounted 7,62 mm machine guns. Consequently, the SAAF Lynx has a third crew member, who acts as a gunner.

"The Lynx has brought in capabilities that the SAAF has never had before," affirms Basson. "The Lynx is on a par with, and perhaps in some respects more complex than, the Gripen. It is a state-of-the-art aircraft, very capable in all helicopter roles, especially in the maritime environment. It has had a major impact on our operations and it's changing the way we do operations. It's a very proficient machine. We like to brag about it."

Although the Oryx is the SAAF's standard transport and utility helicopter, 22 Sqdn is unique in operating a maritime version. This differs from the standard Oryx in being fitted with flotation gear, in having foldable rotor blades, allowing the helicopters to be stowed in ship hangars, and in being fitted with a marine band radio.

"We are currently the world's leading users of Super Puma-type helicopters in maritime operations," states Van Aswegen. (The Oryx is, basically, a smaller, South African-developed, version of the Eurocopter Super Puma/Cougar helicopters.) "No one else operates this type of helicopter in the range of missions and conditions that we do. Our aircrews are all multiqualified - land, maritime, NVG, SAR and Special Forces operations missions. This takes a lot of training. This means that it takes longer for our people to be aircraft-commander-qualified, but it gives us a lot of flexibility."

Although the SAN's frigates can, if need be, accommodate one Oryx each, the helicopter usually serves at sea aboard the navy's combat support ship, SAS Drakensberg, which has hangar space for two Oryxes.

Many missions, however, are flown over land, and firefighting has become a signifi- cant role. In 2009, 22 Sqdn Oryxes flew 21 firefighting missions, totalling 66,9 flying hours and involving the dropping of 791 ‘bambi' bucket-loads of water. In 2010, the missions flown were fewer - 18 - but the hours flown were considerably higher, at 115,4, and the number of bambi bucket-loads released was also up, to 951.

SAR, both overland and over sea, is another important mission, and 2009 saw five such missions, which saved 25 people, with ten missions in 2010 rescuing 11 people. For sea rescues, the Oryx can be fitted with a rescue basket.

Naturally, shipboard operations require specialist training, encompassed in a maritime conversion course, which has ground-based and flying elements and which is carried out by 22 Sqdn itself. Most obviously, the pilots and copilots have to learn how to land on a small flight deck is constantly moving in three directions - the ship is moving forward, rolling and pitching, all at the same time.

"We classify it as ‘landing in a confined space with special conditions'. We can't simulate this so we have to use a real ship, usually the SAS Drakensberg," explains Van Aswegen. "The training programme is progressive - the first flights to the ship are done in calm weather. Landing on the ship is a fairly small part of the training. As important is training in the procedures to find the vessel, approach it, as well as landing on it in severe weather conditions and at night. We have day qualification and night qualification courses, which produce qualified copilots. Then we have the aircraft commander's course, which produces pilots." Flight engineers and ground crew also have to undergo appropriate maritime training.

Guardian Grandparents
While 22 Sdqn operates some of the newest aircraft in the SAAF, 35 Sqdn indisputably operates the oldest - the Douglas C-47TP Dakota. South Africa probably has the world's largest military fleet of still-operational Dakotas, with 11 in service, all with 35 Sqdn. The youngest of these rolled off the production line in 1945 - 66 years ago. And the Dakota's design is 76 years old.

"Our primary role is maritime surveillance," elucidates 35 Sqdn OC Lt Col Gerri van der Merwe. "We patrol the whole sea area to the limit of the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), which is 200 nautical miles from the shore, from Alexander Bay to Kosi Bay. We record all the shipping in the area, all fishing vessels, and any signs or forms of pollution. We also cooperate with the SAN and foreign navies during exercises. We also do inshore patrol in support of the South African Police Service and Marine and Coastal Management, for example, against abalone poaching. We have an air transport role - we do normal transport operations, transporting freight and passengers to various parts of the country, as required. We can also do battlefield support, dropping paratroopers and parachuting supplies. We have an aircraft permanently on standby, 24/7, for SAR, for any vessel in distress that we can assist. We are a very busy squadron." In 2009, 35 Sqdn flew two SAR missions, resulting in the saving of 14 lives, while in 2010 it carried out five such missions, in which five people were rescued.

Of the squadron's eleven aircraft, five are employed in the maritime patrol (MP) role, five are transports, and one is an electronic warfare (EW) aircraft. "The EW aircraft can monitor all frequency spectrums and can survey a wide range of radar systems. It undertakes both electronic intelligence and communications intelligence," he states. "We used this aircraft extensively during the 2010 soccer World Cup at all the stadiums around the country to support the interception of aircraft that were not cleared to fly near the stadiums." The squadron also detaches MP C-47TPs to 80 ANS for navigator training, when needed, and the MP aircraft also serve as airborne command posts during airborne assault operations.

Although the airframes are, by aviation standards, ancient, the same is not true for the avionics and engines. In a programme that started in the mid-1980s and ended in the early 1990s, their original piston engines were replaced by Pratt & Whitney PT6A AR turboprops and they received a completely new avionics suite. Mechanically operated instruments were replaced by electronic instruments.

The MP versions were also fitted with systems to allow them to fulfil this role. The key sensor is a Bendix directional search radar, which is linked to the aircraft's navigation system, allowing a very accurate determination of the position of ships detected by the aircraft.

The MP Dakotas also have extra communications equipment, including UHF, VHF and marine band radios, as well as DF equipment, which covers the whole VHF and UHF spectrum, and a 406 beacon (which covers a satellite-based emergency frequency used by ships in distress). Again, the avionics are a mixture of foreign and local systems - the communications system, for example, is South African.

In the MP role, the Dakotas usually fly at 1 000 ft (roughly 330 m) but can come down to 200 ft (some 66 m), and endurance is up to seven hours. The normal operating range is 1 050 nautical miles with a normal patrol speed of 150 kts.

"We are the squadron in the SAAF with fixed-wing maritime expertise. We have aircrew with lots of experience, but we also have a lot of young aircrew as well, proud to fly this aircraft," affirms Van der Merwe. "We operate the oldest aircraft in the SAAF, but we maintain a very high level of serviceability and we are still effective in the MP and transport roles."

However, the C-47TP is not suited for missions beyond the EEZ and its radar is an adapted weather radar, not a dedicated search radar. Many of the aircraft's other systems are now ageing as well, reducing its efficiency. Although the airframe of the Dakota is famously robust, it makes little sense to put twenty-first century systems in an airframe that dates from the first half of the previous century - hence, the SAAF's desire for a new MP aircraft.


Traditional Designation, Modern Missions
It is the job of 80 ANS to train the specialist aircrew who fly on the Lynx and C-47TP and other aircraft and who, partly for reasons of tradition, and partly because there is no modern, convenient, single designation for what they do, are still called navigators by the SAAF, even though navigating is just about their least important function. Six aircraft in today's SAAF carry navigators - the Lockheed Martin C-130BZ Hercules transport, the C-47TP, the Lynx, the Denel Rooivalk attack helicopter, the Gripen and the BAE Systems Hawk fighter-trainer. But, for example, on the Lynx, the navigator fulfils the role of Tacco, and on the Rooivalk, that of weapons systems operator.

"We provide air navigator training, navigator instructor training, aircrew survival training and air orientation training," reports 80 ANS OC Lt Col Riem Mouton. "We don't have our own aircraft - the number of navigators the SAAF needs is not large enough to justify having our own. So we borrow aircraft from other units, which means that our students get trained on the SAAF's most modern aircraft."

Navigators start their careers with a 12-month ground course at the Military Academy, at Saldanha, before attending 80 ANS for a 15-month flying training phase, which involves 105 hours in a simulator and 110 hours flying in aircraft. The school uses Cessna Caravan 208s for the initial flying training phase, Pilatus Astras for the tactical phase, AgustaWestland A109s for the helicopter course, and C-47TPs for route flying, plotting and maritime search training.

Navigator instructor training takes six months and navigators must serve on a squadron for three years before they qualify for instructor training. Survival training lasts four weeks and covers first aid, escape and evasion, coastal survival (including how to desalinate seawater), parachute jumping, land survival and ditching in the sea. Air orientation training is for aircrew other than pilots and navigators, such as loadmasters on transport aircraft. It lasts six weeks and covers airmanship, navigation, meteorology, physics and aerodynamics.

80 ANS is based in a modern, purpose- designed and -built facility, with a planning room, briefing room, simulator room, two lecture rooms, three offices, two cloak rooms and three tea rooms, with comprehensive local area network coverage. The simulator is another product of South African expertise, having been developed by local com-pany Five Dimension Technologies (5DT).

"It uses commercial off-the-shelf hardware, plus software written by 5DT," states Mouton. "With this new simulator, we have reduced the need for flying training by 60%, saving R515 000 on the training of each student." The simulator, which has 11 training and six instructor stations, can be used to train both flight crew and navigators and is highly flexible. An entire aircrew team (pilots and navigators) can be trained together, or, at the other extreme, a number of individual navigator students can be trained separately but simultaneously, while student pilots are also being trained in the cockpit section of the simulator. 

Source: Engineering News