Lack of spares is severely hampering Norway’s Lynx fleet. Of the six aircraft in 337 Squadron, Royal Norwegian Air Force, only two are operational at any one time, leaving the ‘customer’ – the Norwegian Coast Guard – with minimal helicopter support in its mission to patrol an enormous maritime area of responsibility amounting to a quarter of that patrolled by the whole of Europe. The other four aircraft are hangar queens, their royal duties extending no further than donating vital organs to their working sisters.
Defence Helicopter saw them today, sitting immaculate but forlorn in the 337 Squadron hangars here at Bardufoss. Getting spares out of AgustaWestland is possible, but, according to one frustrated pilot the standard answer to any such request is: ‘Yes, you can have some, but it will take six months and you have to buy ten.’ The main bugbear of the moment is alternators that catch fire.
There’s a new design that doesn’t, but the RNorAF only has four – enough for the two working aircraft.
It seems that simply buying a fleet of aircraft is not enough to guarantee decent spares support – you need to have paid extra for what amounts to ‘most favoured customer’ status, an option that Norway declined. The plan is to refurbish the aircraft to get another 1,000 hours out of them, but at one point the Norwegians’ inclination was to scrap them.
There’s at least one very senior officer in the procurement chain who reportedly never wants to buy another piece of British equipment.
This kind of problem has been among the most powerful drivers of the revolution in UK MoD policy that has led to contracting for availability, putting the risk involved in spares supply onto the manufacturer at the price of large, long term contracts with a lot of money up front.
The first Norwegian NH90 flew in December of ’06, but integration and testing work is still being done on items ranging from the digital map to the life raft.
The first NH90 was originally due to arrive in October ’05. The current date is set for 1 May 08, but there are rumours of another six-month delay, so expectations here of seeing any in '08 are low.
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