ST Engineering’s Aerospace Arm Secures C130 Contract From Royal Air Force of Oman

Singapore Technologies Engineering Ltd’s (ST Engineering) aerospace arm Singapore Technologies Aerospace Ltd (ST Aerospace) today announced that it has secured a contract to provide the Royal Air Force of Oman (RAFO) with a full scale maintenance and modernisation solution for three of its C130 Hercules aircraft. ST Aerospace will undertake both modernisation and maintenance work at its facility in Paya Lebar, Singapore.

The contract includes major servicing of the aircraft, repair and overhaul (R&O) of aircraft components as well as the Rolls-Royce / Allison T56 / 501 engines and its accessories. A significant part of the contract also involves the modernisation of the aircraft cockpit, which is complex in nature and involves extensive aircraft wire tear down and re-wire. The first aircraft is expected to be inducted in the third quarter of 2013, targeting for redelivery in the first quarter of 2014.

Under the modernisation programme, ST Aerospace will equip RAFO’s fleet of C130 aircraft with an avionics suite that is Global Air Traffic Management (GATM) compliant. The avionics suite will include a six-display full glass cockpit, digital flight control system, and flight management system. With this, the aircraft would be able to navigate safely, efficiently and accurately through CNS/ATM-regulated airspace worldwide, significantly improving its operational readiness, despatch reliability and operational efficiency. RAFO will benefit through improved operational efficiency and lower maintenance requirements, while enhancing its overall aircraft availability.

An integrated service provider, ST Aerospace leverages its maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) expertise, as well as its strong in-house engineering capability, and value adds through performing depot level maintenance and cockpit modernisation simultaneously. With a short turnaround time of five months, RAFO will enjoy increased savings with minimised downtime of its fleet.

"The Royal Air Force of Oman has enjoyed an excellent working relationship with ST Aerospace for over 20 years. We are satisfied with its performance level and work quality. We selected ST Aerospace because it is a one stop centre for the C130 Hercules aircraft and has extensive capabilities on this aircraft platform. Its ability to undertake depot level maintenance and cockpit modernisation simultaneously is especially advantageous to us, as it minimises downtime and improves aircraft availability of our fleet.” ~ Air Vice Marshal Matar Ali AL-OBAIDANI, Commander, Royal Air Force of Oman

“We are indeed honoured to be awarded this contract and are grateful for RAFO’s continued trust in our company, to provide its fleet with quality and dependable solutions. We are proud of our long term relationship with the RAFO for over 20 years and are looking forward to this opportunity to further strengthen our successful partnership. ST Aerospace shall leverage our vast experience and expertise on the C130 Hercules aircraft platform to ensure that we deliver to the RAFO a highly reliable and effective system.” ~ CHANG Cheow Teck, President, ST AerospaceST Aerospace’s relationship with RAFO began in 1988, when the air force selected it to perform component repairs for the C130 Hercules fleet. Through the years, the partnership progressed to include airframe, component and engine MRO. With this contract, the partnership is further extended to include modernisation of their C130 Hercules aircraft.

An approved Lockheed Martin Hercules service centre, ST Aerospace is the premier one stop centre for the C130 Hercules aircraft. With extensive experience and expertise, coupled with comprehensive capabilities in airframe structural repair and design and modification, to component and engine R&O, ST Aerospace has redelivered more than 500 C130 aircraft to date, providing nose to tail solutions to C130 operators globally.

This contract is not expected to have any material impact on the consolidated net tangible assets per share and earnings per share of ST Engineering for the current financial year.

We welcome Oman order for Typhoon and Hawk aircraft

We welcome the decision by the Sultanate of Oman to purchase 12 Typhoon and eight Hawk Advanced Jet Trainer (AJT) aircraft.

 

This contract is further recognition that both Typhoon and Hawk are leading aircraft in their class, providing the best capabilities available. 
As well as supplying aircraft, we will provide in-service support to the Royal Air Force of Oman's (RAFO) operational tasks.
Deliveries are expected to commence in 2017.
Responding to the announcement Guy Griffiths, Group Managing Director for BAE Systems' International business said: “Receiving this contract is an honour and is excellent news for both BAE Systems and the Eurofighter Typhoon consortium. BAE Systems has a long history of working in Oman and we are delighted this contract will enable us to continue to work together. We believe that Oman has now added the most advanced fighter jet and proven training aircraft, available in the world, to its military portfolio.
“We look forward to working in partnership with Oman's Ministry of Defence, and the Royal Air Force of Oman, to ensure this is a highly successful programme that maximises the potential of both Hawk and Typhoon.”

Oman becomes the seventh country in the world, and the second in the Middle East, to operate the Typhoon, joining the air forces of the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Spain, Austria and Saudi Arabia.
This order of Hawk AJT's follows an order from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in May of this year. This order takes the total number of Hawk aircraft sold, or on order, to 998.
This announcement also strengthens the long standing relationship between ourselves and the Sultanate of Oman. Oman currently operates Jaguar fighter aircraft and trains pilots on an earlier variant of the BAE Systems Hawk.

U.S. arms to Gulf allies hint of strategy

The largest infusion of U.S. arms ever for Persian Gulf allies has shifted more toward offensive weapons at the same time that President Obama’s military strategy says it will rely more on allied firepower in any future war.

The only war on the horizon for Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and four other Gulf coalition partners would be with nearby Iran.
Noting U.S. sales of air defense-penetrating F-16s and F-15s, satellite-guided bombs and a pending order for ordnance that can burrow deep and then explode, analysts say Gulf nations could participate in a U.S. air campaign to strike Iran’s nuclear sites.
These American-armed nations could either be part of an overall war plan or be forced to enter the battle once Iran counterattacks, as expected, with missile launches.
“The thinking certainly is that Iran would retaliate against the Gulf states, or at least against the facilities in the Gulf that we use,” said Kenneth Katzman, a Middle East analyst at the Congressional Research Service. “That would certainly draw the Gulf states into any conflict that went on. The Gulf might become embroiled in this conflict, and I think they’ve calculated it’s best to be prepared.”
There has been public focus on the U.S. military buildup in the Gulf — more aircraft carriers, warplanes and strike groups studded with Tomahawk cruise missiles; more minesweeping ships; a visit by Air Force F-22 stealth jets; and thousands of Army soldiers positioned in Kuwait.
But just as methodically, the George W. Bush and Obama administrations have approved a series of large arms sales that are giving some oil-rich Gulf states offensive capabilities that would make Iran think twice about an attack.
Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta underscored the alliance Dec. 11 when he landed in Kuwait, a staunch Gulf ally, for consultations. He also spoke to some of the 13,500 U.S. troops stationed there.
“Our presence in Kuwait and throughout the Gulf helps advance the capabilities of partnering nations, deters aggression and helps ensure we’re better able to respond to crisis in the region,” Mr. Panetta told reporters beforehand.
At a Kuwait air base, he said America has 50,000 troops and an armada of warships in the region.

Desert Falcons
Mr. Obama’s strategic guidance in January enabled cuts in U.S. troop strength in part by saying that allies would be tasked with providing more firepower in future wars. To observers, that seems to mean the Gulf states would be asked to do more.
The Congressional Research Service, which tracks global arms sales, took special note in its latest report on U.S. weapons pouring into the Gulf states of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait and Bahrain.
“The U.S. arms agreements with Saudi Arabia were extraordinary, and represent, by far, the largest share of U.S. agreements with the world or developing world in 2011,” the Congressional Research Service said.
Of $56 billion in total U.S. arms sales in 2011 to developing nations, more than half — $33 billion — were inked with the Saudi kingdom. U.S. defense contractors have seen a sales increase from $14 billion in contracts in 2010 to $56 billion in 2011, mostly thanks to oil-rich Gulf states.

In addition, some of the offensive hardware that the Gulf states have received from the U.S. is as good or in some cases better than the U.S. military‘s.
Lockheed Martin has been selling the United Arab Emirates an F-16 “Desert Falcon” version known as “Block 60,” for which the country bankrolled the $3 billion development costs. According to DefenseIndustryDaily.com, it is a notch better than the latest Fighting Falcons flown by U.S. pilots.
The Desert Falcons boast extended range, new radars and targeting pods that clearly make the jet an offensive threat against Iran directly across Gulf waters.
The United Arab Emirates has been buying and flying Block 60s since the previous decade. It plans at some point to add other weapons — 2,000-pound bunker-busting bombs used against buried, cemented targets. Obama administration officials said a year ago that they were working to complete the sale.
“It’s perfectly possible the UAE could be asked to try to bomb aircraft shelters, hardened aircraft hangars’ stockpiles, coastal missile sites that are hardened,” Mr. Katzman said. “There are a range of targets that coalition partners like UAE could be asked to take out as part of strike package, if it comes to that.”
The Saudi stockpile
The United Arab Emirates‘ Sunni Arab neighbor Saudi Arabia also is buying more aggressive weapons.
It signed a deal last year to buy 2,000 joint direct attack munitions — a weapon system that turns unguided bombs into guided missiles, and has been used extensively by the Navy and Air Force to destroy targets in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Saudi Arabia also signed a deal to buy 84 F-15SAs and to upgrade its fleet of 70 warplanes.
The F-15s can unleash a wide array of ordnance, including the satellite-guided joint direct attack munitions, Harpoon ship-blasting missiles and anti-tank bombs called the Sensor-Fuzed Weapon.
Such offensive weapons are increasing in importance to the Gulf, given Israel’s reported plans to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities if the West does not stop the Islamic republic’s pursuit of atomic weapons.
The Gulf states “also see the Shiite-dominated Iran as a general destabilizing force in their neighborhood,” said retired Air ForceLt. Gen. Thomas McInerney, who advocates military action against Tehran.
“Clearly, the Sunni Arabs are very concerned about [Shiites] sweeping across the Arabian Peninsula into Lebanon, Syria and Gaza, fueled by Iran’s leadership and resources,” Gen. McInerney said. “The U.S. sale of modern aircraft and weapons is designed to help them cope with this threat.”
He said the Gulf nations also are banking on assistance to which they would never admit publicly. “Covertly, they are supporting the Israelis’ counter [to the Shiites],” he said.
From Iran’s vantage point, the Persian Gulf looks like this: The U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, based in Bahrain, constantly patrols the waterway. To the west and south on land, the Gulf nations are acquiring an increasingly potent arsenal of planes, missiles and bombs.
“We have been selling these countries weapons of varying sophistication for 20-plus years as part of our overall approach to ensuring regional security and stability,” said James Russell, an instructor at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif.
“We really ramped up our entire defense relationships with these countries after we ejected [Iraqi dictator] Saddam Hussein from Kuwait,” said Mr. Russell, a former Pentagon official involved in foreign arms sales. “We went around the region concluding Defense Cooperation Agreements with each of these states, except Saudi Arabia, which provided a framework for arms sales, prepositioned equipment, forward deployed forces, and training and exercises.
“We want these countries to be able to defend themselves and be able to operate and train with us, since we are the ones ultimately guaranteeing the security of the region,” Mr. Russell said.

INS Tarkash to anchor at Salalah port

INS Tarkash, the second of the three stealth Frigates under construction at Yantar Shipyard, Kaliningrad, Russia, is scheduled for a halt at Salalah from December 22 to 23. The ship will be open for visit by Omani and Indian nationals from 10:00 – 13:00 hours on Sunday, December, 23.

The ship was commissioned and inducted into the Indian Navy by vice -admiral Shekhar Kumar Sinha, flag officer commanding-in-chief, Western Naval Command on November 9, 2012 at Kaliningrad, Russia.

The occasion was graced by the presence of the ambassador of India to the Russian Federation. The ship is on its maiden passage post commissioning. The induction of this fifth multi-role stealth frigate with an advance combat suite and optimal blend of cutting edge technologies would considerably bolster the Indian Navy.

The formidable array of weapons and sensors onboard the ship include the supersonic Brahmos missile system, advanced Surface to Air missile system upgraded 100mm medium range gun, optimally controlled 30mm Close-in weapon system, Torpedoes, Rocket Launchers and advanced Electronic Warfare/Communication suite. The ship is commanded by Captain Antony George, an  'Anti Submarine Warfare' specialist.

Royal Guard of Oman Carries Out 1st Operational Firing of MBDA's VL MICA System

On 24 September 2012, the Royal Guard of Oman (RGO) successfully carried out the first operational firing of a VL MICA missile. The firing, using the RGO’s own VL MICA Ground Based Air Defence (GBAD) system, took place at the Abeer test range located in the centre of the Sultanate of Oman in the presence of the highest political and military authorities in Oman.

All aspects of the firing exercise, which included the detection, interception and destruction of an ATARID target flying at more than 14 km range from the VL MICA missile launcher, were completely successful.

For the test firing, an operational VL MICA missile equipped with an RF seeker was used.

The VL MICA GBAD system, delivered to the RGO by MBDA and operating in stand-alone mode under the control of its own Tactical Operation Centre, detected the target with its 3D radar (TRML3D supplied by EADS Cassidian).

This operational exercise saw the 19th successful firing of a VL MICA missile.  VL MICA has not had a single firing failure since the beginning of its development trials in 2003. Significantly, the RGO firing marked the first ever operational use of the land-based VL MICA system by an export customer.