Navy Matters | Surface Combatant Maritime Rotorcraft

(Above) The AgustaWestland Lynx HMA Mark 8. Note the pylon mounted Sea Skua anti-ship missile. The Royal Navy originally wanted a replacement for Lynx by the end of this decade, but timescales have slipped considerably.

(Above) The AgustaWestland Future Lynx has been selected to meet the SCMR or rather Maritime (Surface) Attack element of the Future Rotorcraft Capability helicopter requirement. Like the Lynx HMA.8, it will be able to carry the Sting Ray torpedo (upper picture), and will be fitted with a new stores management system, carrier and launcher. This is in order to deploy a new missile (lower picture, shown carrying the Hellfire missile) or rocket system that will replace the Sea Skua as part of the future air-to-surface guided weapon programme. (Source: AgustaWestland)

(Above) The Future Lynx is based on the already well proven Super Lynx, a South African example being shown here. (Source: AgustaWestland)

(Above) A model of the RN's Future Lynx variant on the AgustaWestland at DSEi 2005. (Source: Richard Beedall)

Project designation: ?
Status: Demonstration and Manufacture Phase, Main Gate passed June 2006
In Service Date: 2015

The AgustaWestland Future Lynx has been selected as to meet a requirement to maintain and extend the Royal Navy's above-water surveillance and attack capability in environments ranging from open ocean to littoral, in support of maritime, joint or combined operations. 39 Lynx HAS Mk.3 and 36 Lynx HMA Mk.8 currently (mid-2006) provide this maritime capability and they will eventually be replaced by 30 Future Lynx's.

The FLynx (its UK service name is still to be decided) will be based on the existing AgustaWestland Super Lynx 300 but will feature mission-specific changes to meet UK requirements. The new helicopters will embody a range of technological improvements including: configurable cockpit display, networked enabled capability, more powerful engines, better defensive aids and a new tail rotor system. Technology improvements mean that the aircraft will have greater reliability, resulting in significant reductions to support and maintenance costs over life of the aircraft.

The MOD had been assessing since early 2005 a proposal from AgustaWestland to supply the Future Lynx (FLynx) to meet both the RN's Surface Combatant Maritime Rotorcraft (SCMR) and the British Army's Battlefield Light Utility Helicopter (BLUH) requirement for a new helicopter to support Air Manoeuvre, Littoral (sea to shore) Manoeuvre, and Special Forces operations within the Joint Task Force. A lack of funding has been a chief cause of delay.

On 22 June 2006, Lord Drayson, Minister for Defence Procurement, announced an order with AgustaWestland under which the UK's Armed Forces will receive Future Lynx helicopters "which will be used for everything from battlefield reconnaissance, casualty evacuation and troop transport, to detecting and destroying fast naval attack craft."

As a part of an implied wider deal, Finmeccanica (the Italian parent company of AgustaWestland) simultaneously agreed to locate AgustaWestland's Military Division in the UK, at Yeovil. The MOD claimed that 800 jobs had been secured.

The new helicopter are expected to enter service from 2014 and stay in service for thirty years. The contract is expected to cost in the region of £1 billion and allows for the firm provision of 70 aircraft plus options for an additional 10, of these 30 aircraft and 5 options are for the RN, the remainder for the Army. It's believe that the RN and Army were originally (c.2001) seeking a total of 130.

The first flight of the first Future Lynx will take place in late 2009 with initial deliveries starting in 2011. Future Lynx will enter operational service in 2014 with the British Army and 2015 with the Royal Navy. It would thus appear that adjustments will be made to the planned out of service dates for the RN's current hard-worked Lynx force - 2012 for HAS.3 and 2014 for HMA.8.

The Westland Lynx has been in service with the Royal Navy since the 1970's operating primarily from frigates and destroyers, acting as an ‘eye in the sky’, a weapons platform and a means of rapid transport for small small numbers of personnel and equipment. The latest variant is called the Lynx Helicopter Medium Attack Mark 8 (or Lynx HMA.8), of which the RN procured 44. The SCMR project seeks a replacement for the capability provided by the RN's Lynx's. The equivalent programme for the Army, which also operates :Lynx's, is the Battlefield Light Utility Helicopter (BLUH). An earlier study by the Ministry of Defence has already shown that Future Lynx has the potential to meet the needs of both Services, and additional studies will further evaluate its potential and also examine alternatives.

Initial Gate (IG) approval for BLUH was given in December 2001, although the Assessment Phase (AP) contract with Westland Helicopters Ltd (WHL) did not become effective until May 2002. In July 2002 a contract worth £10 million was awarded by the Lynx Integrated Project Team, based at MoD Abbey Wood and Yeovilton, to assess the suitability of Future Lynx for use by the Royal Navy. According to Defence Minister Lord Bach in a statement at the time: "Lynx has served the Royal Navy with distinction since the 1970s all over the world and has demonstrated its first class military capabilities in the Falklands conflict and the Gulf War. These aircraft will need replacement in the next six years and we believe that Future Lynx offers great potential to fill this. [This] announcement gives AgustaWestland the opportunity to prove it can successfully deliver on this key capability." The SCMR study was to run in parallel with a study for BLUH approved in 2001 into use of the aircraft by the Army.

Although subject to separate Initial Gate approvals, the BLUH and SCMR Assessment Phase programmes were running jointly with a single tender solution for WHL to develop and de-risk its FLynx proposal. Analysis undertaken for the BLUH IG business case showed that there was little to discriminate between single tender and competitive strategies for this requirement, but that single tender offered a faster route to provide the capability within the required timescale.

The forecast date for submission of the joint BLUH and SCMR Main Gate business case was December 2003, but this slipped to Spring 2004. This was also missed, and the July 2004 command paper: "Delivering Security in a Changing World; Future Capabilities" included no news of progress and the project seemed to be in danger of out-right cancellation.

Workstrands were set up by the MOD in 2003 to find cheaper ways of "doing defence". The relevant Workstrand 13 investigating Future Rotorcraft Equipment SCMR made some radical recommendations in its report to the UK’s Defence Management Board (DMB). The question emerged as to whether a direct replacement for Lynx was actually required, or whether the capability currently provided by the Lynx HMA.8 could be replaced by a lower cost combination of other systems: - Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV); upgraded RN Merlin HM.1's, RAF Merlin HM.3's, Army WAH-64 Apache's, leased civilian helicopters, etc. In particular, it was suggested that for the transport and utility role, SCMR and BLUH could be merged with the SABR-light requirement.

The AgustaWestland Merlin HM.3+ (previously a favourite for SABR) was considered to be larger and more expensive than ideal for a combined SCMR/BLUH/SABR-light requirement, while the Future Lynx was too small. The Future Lynx is a development of the AgustaWestland Super Lynx 300, the latest export version of the Lynx. Super Lynx 300 has an improved airframe for 25+ year service life, a new engine which will operate more effectively in hot and high conditions, and a modern avionics suite. Future Lynx also has a greater load carrying ability and further avionics improvements.

The NHIndustries NH90, or possibly the Sikorsky MH-60S/R, was seen as representing a much better compromise choice than AgustaWestland's offerings from most military points of view, and Alain Gauthier, commercial director of NH Industries, said in September 2004 that Britain was considering buying 100 NH90 helicopters. Scrapping Lynx without a direct replacement would result in substantial savings - the separate SCMR, BLUH and SABR projects were budgeted at nearly £4.2 billion, while a combined approach was estimated at £3 billion.

The NH90 was available in two models - a dedicated Naval Frigate Helicopter (NFH) for the maritime mission, and a Tactical Transport Helicopter (TTH) for the army aviation role. However for meeting the UK's combined SCMR/BLUH/SABR requirement EADS (effectively the 62.5% controlling shareholder of NHIndustries) was believed to be proposing some kind of hybrid solution, a senior source at NHIndustries said: "We can play with features taken from the TTH and NFH variants to put together a customer-optimised configuration." The approach was similar to that for Australia which selected the NH90 in August 2004, its MRH90 variant is modelled on the German Army's version, with slight variations such as electrically-folding main rotor blades and extensive navalisation features, including emergency flotation kits.

The industrial (and political) requirement that SCMR and SABR aircraft must be manufactured in the UK made an interesting turn in May 2004 when it was announced that GKN was negotiating the sale of its stake in AgustaWestland to Finmeccanica for £1.06 billion, making the company entirely Italian owned. Completion of the deal occurred in October 2004. The sale price included £35 million to be held in escrow and repaid by GKN to Finmeccanica if the helicopter business was not awarded by the MOD the anticipated Future Lynx contract for SCMR/BLUH by May 2008. It was being reported that a full order for the required Royal Navy aircraft fleet could be worth up to £400M (part of a near £1 billion order when Army requirements are included) to AgustaWestland, as well as help protect jobs at the company's Yeovil plant.

Without FLynx work the old Westland Yeovil plant was expected to inevitably be closed, Finmeccanica consolidating any outstanding EH.101 Merlin work at the Vergiate plant in Italy. While any EADS offer in relation to NH90 might have involved the Yeovil plant building the NH90's, EADS was far from keen about this approach because it already had three NH-90 assembly lines in Europe and plenty of spare capacity for a large (perhaps as many as 100 helicopters) UK order. EADS believed that it would be able to offer a high enough UK content or offsets in its NH90 proposal for the industrial aspects to be acceptable to the UK government.

After the command paper was published in 2004, the work started by the Workstrand 13 was taken over by the Future Rotorcraft Coherency Study. The study focused on three role requirements; delivered in both maritime and land environments: Find (effectively ISTAR); Attack (“Strike” in traditional RN terminology); and Lift.

The capability offered by FLynx was rigorously assessed against the requirement for both BLUH and SCMR with an emphasis on maintaining commonality between the two aircraft where this offered best value. Independent product benchmarking assessed the value for money of the FLynx compared with the AB139, NH90, UH-60M and EC655 helicopters, in particular EADS has for a long time been strongly requesting that the UK MoD look to its NH90.

On 24 March 2005 the MoD indicated that AgustaWestland's Future Lynx (FLynx) was its preferred option for meeting the Land Find and the Maritime (Surface) Attack elements of the Future Rotorcraft Capability requirement. This decision was subject to negotiations with the company and agreeing acceptable contract conditions and prices.

It was stated that exact aircraft numbers for the Future Lynx, delivery schedule and In-Service Date would all be set at the time of the final "Main Gate" procurement decision expected later in 2005. AgustaWestland welcomed the announcement and said that the estimated value of the programme was in the region of £1 billion. EADS decided not to to dispute the preferred status of the FLynx, despite having pressed the MoD to consider a rival bid based on its EC635.

The MOD's Investment Approvals Board (IAB) apparently approved the FLynx business case at its meeting on 6 August 2005, an industry source said “Future Lynx development for the Army and Navy was approved, subject to various conditions, particularly whether AgustaWestland can demonstrate value for money.” Demonstrating Value for Money may mean that competitors will be invited to submit indicative quotations against the same "Land Find and Maritime (Surface) Attack" user requirements. and capability provision. If any of these quotations were significantly less than AgustaWestland has indicated with its FLynx proposal, then a reversion to a competitive tender situation was possible.

The reported AIB recommendation was later refuted, sources from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) commented that the Future Lynx proposal is not yet 'technically and financially mature' enough to be taken to the Investment Appraisals Board (IAB), and Main Gate could be delayed until first or second quarter 2006.

[The following two subsections are taken from an AgustaWestland press release dated 22 June 2006]

Future Lynx is a new air vehicle that builds on the dynamic and vehicle systems of the existing Lynx design. It also incorporates new systems developed for Super Lynx 300 and delivers enhanced systems that provide a more capable air vehicle. The British Army and Royal Navy Future Lynx will have a common fully marinised airframe with provisions for a range of mission and role equipment in support of its multi-role capability.

The aircraft has a built-in mass growth provision to allow incremental cost-effective capability upgrades from the In Service Date Maximum All Up Mass (MAUM) of 5790 kg through to an Out of Service Date MAUM of 6250 kg. The 12,000-hour fatigue life airframe also incorporates monolithic machined aluminium structural parts to reduce component count and maintenance and has improved crashworthiness features designed to meet military 90th percentile potentially survivable crash case conditions.

A new low set symmetric tailplane has been incorporated to improve flying qualities and larger cockpit doors have been designed to improve crew egress. The redesigned nose and rear fuselage give greater space and easier access to avionic units while an all new up-rated common undercarriage with strengthened attachments has been designed to meet the aircraft’s MAUM of 6,250 kg.

Future Lynx will be powered by two LHTEC CTS800 engines each rated at 1015 kW (1361 shp) which give the aircraft greatly improved hot and high performance and single engine performance over existing Army and Royal Navy Lynx helicopters. The CTS800 engines provide 36% greater power than the Gem engines used in current MoD Lynx helicopters for very similar fuel consumption.

Future Lynx with its CTS800 engines will have an endurance of approximately 3 hours with standard fuel and 4.5 hours with auxiliary fuel while being able to carry half as much again as current Lynx helicopters.

The existing composite main rotor blades will be used and married with an all new 4-blade tail rotor to give improved yaw control at high weights and a new common undercarriage with improved crashworthiness has been designed.

Future Lynx will also feature a range of equipment to enhance its survivability including crashworthy/armoured crew seating, crashworthy passenger seating, ‘role fit’ armoured cabin floor, Wire Strike Protection System, a proven Integrated Defensive Aids Suite and an engine Infra-Red Suppression (IRS) system on the Army aircraft.

Future Lynx will also be equipped with an Integrated Health and Usage Monitoring System (HUMS) to improve safety and reduce cost of ownership.

Future Lynx will have a comprehensive and highly capable integrated avionics suite that enables and supports all aspects of the Army and Royal Navy missions. The basic aircraft avionics suite, consisting of navigation and communication systems, is controlled and managed by twin Control Display and Navigation Units (CDNU). Display of primary flight information is via four Smiths Industries 10”x8” Liquid Crystal Displays (LCD) Integrated Display Units (IDU). This suite is designed to achieve high levels of availability, flexibility, redundancy and safety. It provides excellent navigation and communication facilities to enable maximum performance from the associated mission sensor suite.

Mission systems are managed by a Tactical Processor (TP) jointly developed by General Dynamics (UK) and AgustaWestland. Display and management of tactical views and control of the sensor suite is via the Integrated Display Units and a Cursor Control Device. Human Machine Interface (HMI) issues have been, and will continue to be, designed to minimize crew workload through extensive simulation and trials with Army and Royal Navy operators and MoD subject matter experts.

Prior to commencement of a mission, the Mission Planning System (MPS) can receive and process relevant mission information, including Mission Orders, Tactical Airspace Information, Meteorological and Geographical Data. This enables missions to be planned for multiple platforms. These plans can be rehearsed in either 2D or 3D and replanned to suit. Accurate position Information is obtained from the navigation suite, which is based around an Integrated Global Positioning System (GPS) Inertial system, providing highly accurate and reliable data to support pilotage and mission sensor performance.

Both Army and Royal Navy variants are able to visually detect distant targets in a variety of demanding meteorological conditions using a stabilised Electro-Optic Device (EOD). The Royal Navy variant has a 360° scanning digital colour radar system designed to enable it to meet its Maritime Surveillance role.

Offensive capability and self protection are provided on both variants via role fit of a pintle mounted General Purpose Machine Gun or M3M Heavy Machine Guns (HMG). The ability to conduct third party designation of targets, particularly for Apache AH Mk1, is enabled by using the role-fit Laser Target Designator and Range Finder fitted within the EOD.

The Royal Navy variant retains the Sting Ray torpedoes from Lynx Mk8, and will be fitted with a new Stores Management System, carrier and launcher. This is in order to deploy a new missile or rocket system that will replace the Sea Skua as part of the Future Air to Surface Guided Weapon (FASGW) programme.

Future Lynx is fitted with a communications suite based upon the Thales Avionics Secure Communications Control System developed for the existing Mk8 Lynx. Plain and secure voice communication is provided via the V/UHF SATURN and HF radios. BOWMAN radio functionality is also provided, giving the Army variant the ability to interact within the BOWMAN network, exchanging secure voice and data communications. The Naval variant will have an ESM and data link capability.

New technology onboard will also mean reductions to support and maintenance costs over the life of the aircraft which will stay in service for thirty years. An integrated operational support package and training programme is currently being developed with the MoD in order to meet entry into service and through life requirements.

The current Lynx entered service with the Royal Navy and the Army in the mid-1970s in anti-submarine and utility roles. Since then the aircraft has taken on an increasingly wide range of roles including: anti-surface warfare, battlefield reconnaissance, casualty evacuation, airborne command post, logistical support and tactical troop transport. Future Lynx will help preserve and extend this operational capability for the Royal Navy and the Army.

Closely associated with SCMR is the FASGR. In April 1999 approval was given to raise User Requirement Document (Sea) 6625 for a helo-launched FASGW (future anti-surface guided weapon) system to replace the Sea Skua. Because of the subsequent decision to delay the programme by several years, FASGW remains in the concept phase and the in service date has slipped from the original 2009 to 2012 and is now 2014.

The project recognises that changes in the operational environment, increases in target capability and the inevitable advance in technology have led to the requirement for a modern, capable anti-surface weapon as part of the Maritime Contribution to Joint Operations in the littoral. The Future Anti-Surface Guided Weapon (FASGW) is intended to meet this requirement and hence ensure the Royal Navy maintains its Anti-Surface Warfare (ASuW) attack capability well into the next century.

FASGW will provide a cost-effective ASuW delivery system to meet the perceived threat of Fast Attack Craft (FAC) and to help establish Sea Control/Sea Denial within the area of operations (including the littoral). FASGW is focussed on Corvette sized (and smaller) targets (including missile firing FACs), and on coastal "soft" land targets.

To date, a number of research studies have been conducted in support of the FASGW concept, as well as some operational analysis. Industry has also carried out some private venture funded pre-feasibility studies. However, the exact nature of the system formally remains open until Concept Phase is completed at Initial Gate.

The leading contender for FASGW is a Guided Missile launched from an air platform. A study into anti-ship capabilities concluded that helicopters were the most cost-effective Anti-Surface Weapon platforms to meet the proposed threat, particularly in areas of high background, non-hostile shipping density and where stringent Rules of Engagement provide an additional challenge.

In July 2006 MBDA revealed the results of a MOD funded feasibility study in to how to address the FASGW requirement - the Sea Skua Mk2. This would have a range of 40 km (25 nm), and each FLynx would be able to carry to four of the 150 kg (330 lb) missiles. Each sea skimming missile will have an active radio frequency seeker rather the current semi active radar seeker, and a data link for mid course target updates. As well as ships. The missile will be able to engage high radar contrast land target.

The Sea Skua Mk2 is intended to meet what is now termed the FASGW (Heavy) Sea Skua replacement, a separate FASGW (light) requirement has emerged. This is likely to be a guided rocket for use against small boats and soft land targets.




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