L-3 Unit Sees Opportunity as ‘Sustainment Bridge’ to MMA

By RICHARD R. BURGESS
Managing Editor

The day the Navy announced Boeing as its selection for the future Multimission Maritime Aircraft (MMA) program also marked a milestone for L-3 Communications’ Integrated Systems sector.

On June 14, L-3 returned a P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft to the Navy, the first of 16 being refurbished under the Navy’s Enhanced Special Structural Inspection (ESSI) program. Performed under ESSI are structural inspections, pre-emptive repairs and structural enhancements, including replacement of major sections of the wings.

As the Navy struggles to keep its maritime patrol capability alive while it draws down to a level of 148 P-3Cs, L-3 is a major participant in providing the service with the means of sustaining that capability until the MMA enters service.

The MMA decision “increases for L-3 the emphasis on ESSI and follow-on programs,” said John E. Boyington Jr., vice president for Navy programs at L-3 in Waco, Texas.

L-3 recently was awarded a second $48 million contract to perform ESSIs for 16 more P-3Cs. Boyington told Sea Power the company expects to re-compete in the fall for a third ESSI contract. L-3’s chief competitor in P-3 modification and repair programs is Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co.’s Greenville, S.C., division.

“We are in the sustainment business,” Boyington said. He sees ESSI as a “sustainment bridge” to MMA that “is more critical than before.” He points out that L-3 “provides a safety net as MMA proceeds.”

Boyington said that under current planning, some P-3Cs with fewer flying hours will not need ESSI, but may require ESSIs later if the MMA’s [service entry] is delayed, as happens with many new aircraft procurement programs.

L-3 stood up the ESSI on fairly short notice, Boyington said, and delivered the first aircraft on time. The company is working to drive down the modification time per aircraft from 220 to 230 days for the first aircraft to less than 140 days by the time the seventh aircraft rolls out of the facility.

Glenn Perryman, the deputy program manager for maritime patrol aircraft at the Naval Air Systems Command, told Sea Power the Navy “is very satisfied with the first ESSI delivery from L-3. Faced with significant engineering and technical issues, L-3 aggressively met the challenge, delivering the fleet a highly valuable mission asset on time. Additionally, since the inception of the program, L-3 has introduced several innovative process improvements that should decrease turn-around time on future ESSI deliveries.”

L-3, which purchased its Waco and Greenville, Texas, facilities from Raytheon, is heavily involved in a number of other modification and sustainment programs. The company is modifying additional P-3C aircraft to EP-3E electronic reconnaissance aircraft to increase the Navy’s EP-3E fleet from 11 to 16 aircraft. It also is focusing on bringing the fleet up to a common mission systems configuration, in order to sustain its electronic reconnaissance capability until the new Aerial Common Sensor aircraft enters service in 2012 or 2013. Any slippage in the replacement aircraft could result in more sustainment business for L-3.

Foreign customers have provided substantial aircraft modernization business for L-3 in the recent past and the company sees potential for more. With the wait for the U.S. MMA decision over, foreign operators of P-3s now will be able to move ahead on decisions to refurbish their P-3s or replace them with new aircraft.

The market, however, will depend on defense budget decisions of the operating nations. The government of the Netherlands, for example, has decided to retire its entire fleet of P-3Cs by the end of the year, for economic reasons, even as they are being redelivered from Lockheed Martin, which installed major avionics upgrades in the aircraft. Germany has expressed an interest in acquiring the Dutch P-3s to replace its old Atlantique patrol planes.

L-3 modified aircraft for Greece and Canada and is continuing the Sea Sentinel program, a major avionics upgrade of the P-3Cs in the Royal Australian Air Force. L-3 has been named a preferred vendor by the Royal New Zealand Air Force to upgrade its P-3s; the contract is awaiting government approval. The company is bidding on a proposed upgrade of the Republic of Korea’s P-3Cs.

Marines Order ScanEagle UAVs for Iraq Surveillance

The Marine Corps has ordered two ScanEagle unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) mobile deployment systems from Boeing for use in the surveillance role in Iraq. Each mobile deployment system includes several UAVs as well as control computers, communications links and ground systems.

The 4-foot-long ScanEagle — designed by Boeing’s Phantom Works teamed with The Insitu Group of Bingen, Wash., — can remain on station for more than 15 hours while soaring on its 10-foot wingspan. Boeing plans to developed variants with an endurance of more than 30 hours.

The ScanEagle UAV — which is sent airborne by a pneumatic catapult launcher and recovered with a hook that engages a hanging rope — features an internal avionics bay that can house sensor payloads such as an infrared or electro-optical sensor. The runway-independent UAV flies preprogrammed or operator-initiated missions.

The ScanEagle participated in Exercise Forward Look III sponsored in early 2004 by the Joint Forces Command. The Marine Corps, which is formulating its future requirements for UAVs, currently operates RQ-2 Pioneer UAVs that have more limited endurance and require more area for launching and recovery.

Defense Industry Notes

§ Lockheed Martin has begun assembly of the forward fuselage of the first F-35 Joint Strike Fighter at its facility in Fort Worth, Texas. The first flight of the F-35, a new-generation fighter being developed for the Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force, is scheduled for 2006.

§ Northrop Grumman has begun assembly of the first of two developmental EA-18G electronic attack versions of the Super Hornet strike fighter at the company’s facility in El Segundo, Calif. The center and aft fuselage structures eventually will be shipped to Boeing in St. Louis for final assembly. The Navy’s EA-18G is designed to jam enemy radar emissions and communications and destroy radar sites.

§ Isotta Fraschini/FDGM’s Gulf Coast Operation in Aransas Pass, Texas, has been awarded a Naval Sea Systems Command contract worth more than $4 million to upgrade the non-magnetic diesel engines of two mine countermeasures ships, USS Warrior and USS Gladiator. The Navy decided to upgrade the engines of its mine warfare ships rather than purchase new engines.