Boeing Defence Australia is responsible for supporting the training of helicopter and UAV pilots of both the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) and Australian Army. It does so under the auspices of the Helicopter Aircrew Training System (HATS).
Training takes place at the Joint Helicopter School, which operates under 723 Squadron at HMAS Albatross in Nowra, New South Wales. The facility achieved an initial operating capability in early 2019.
Commander Sam Dale, Commanding Officer of 723 Squadron, succinctly described the Joint Helicopter School’s function: ‘To develop helicopter aircrew for combat.’ The squadron’s leader deliberately alternates between army and navy officers, given that both services utilise the school.
Dale explained: ‘723 Squadron, the Joint Helicopter School, is responsible for training Defence’s helicopter aircrew, and we do that in collaboration with Boeing and other industry partners. It’s essential to our outputs, working together with a common objective, and really joined up and synchronised with an integrated approach for our helicopter training system.’
HATS has the potential to train up to 153 pilots, aviation warfare officers, aircrew, mission sensor operators, remote pilot warfare officers and instructors annually. The first training course was delivered in October 2018, and a total of 241 students had graduated as at late 2022.
Approximately 70-80 students attend the school at any one time, and a trainee helicopter pilot would typically spend nine months at the school. After graduation, pilots and aircrews are assigned to operational squadrons where they learn to fly specific helicopter platforms (MH-60R for the navy, and MRH90, Tiger or CH-47F for the army).
Dale stated that the school boasts 193 staff, of which 61% are from Boeing, 11% from Thales, 16% from the RAN, 7% from the army and 5% from elsewhere. Its 13 pilot instructors have cumulatively achieved more than 60,000 flight hours.
Ian Gibney, Boeing’s HATS Programme Manager, described it as ‘one of the most sophisticated helicopter training schools worldwide’. He said pass rates are very strong, as the system is designed to maximise pass rates. It trains UAV pilots as well.
Other industry partners are Airbus, Safran and Thales. Indeed, HATS employs 15 Airbus H135 T2+ twin-engine helicopters. Classroom instruction is furthered by three Level B full-motion flight simulators from Thales; two tactical part task trainers from Camber Technologies in the USA; one aircraft replica trainer from EDM in the UK; two VR trainers from Virtalis; one marshalling VR trainer from SEA; and ten desktop trainers from Camber.
Thales is responsible for the virtual reality component of the course. Its 6.5 staff teach mission systems and tactical operations on ITAR-free training tools, including ab initio training for radar and sensor operators.
HATS was acquired under Project Air 9000 Phase 7, and Boeing Defence Australia, who had teamed up with Thales Australia, was awarded this contract in October 2014.
Ship operations are practised too thanks to the existence of MV Sycamore, a multirole aviation training vessel based at HMAS Waterhen in Sydney. The 94m-long Damen-built vessel, which arrived in Australia in June 2017, is an important training tool for HATS. This is because RAN warships are usually occupied with other tasks, so are not available for training iterations.
Given that the RAN will receive twelve extra MH-60R helicopters and the army 29 AH-64E Apache Guardian attack helicopters, demand for helicopter crews will only grow in Australia. Thus, Amy List, Boeing Defence Australia’s Director of Sustainment Operations, commented: ‘We’ve got a really great challenge ahead of us to make sure that we’re growing the capability to meet that future need, and it’s our partnerships with army and navy that are critical for us to be able to do that.
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