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News: Navy's Lynx Helicopters are Grounded by Faulty Rotors Source: THE DAILY TELEGRAPH LONDON Publication date: 2000-04-29

ALMOST all the Royal Navy's Lynx helicopters have been grounded by a serious technical fault which will take two years to put right.

Defence sources admitted yesterday that the Navy would only be able to carry out "significant operational tasks" with its reduced fleet of 15 serviceable Lynx. Training sorties and support operations will be curtailed.

The Lynx plays a crucial role for the Royal Navy's intelligence gathering for destroyers and frigates as well as providing a defence screen against submarines.

Problems with the Lynx add to existing budgetary problems faced by the Navy which recently had to curtail some exercises because of lack of funds.

Some of the Army's Lynx attack helicopters also face being grounded but the Army was confident that the proportion affected was considerably lower than in the Navy.

The decision to take 44 of the Navy's 59 Lynx helicopters out of service was made on Thursday after discussions with GKN Westland, which built the aircraft. The company had been investigating a serious malfunction two years ago in a Lynx helicopter serving in the Dutch Armed Forces.

Even though no single cause for the malfunction, which injured one crew member and wrote off the aircraft, was found, Westland experts blamed the failure of the titanium monoblock rotor head.

This is the block that forms the hub of the four rotors controlling the angle of the blades. Originally, the monoblock had a life of 5,000 hours before being replaced but this was cut to 2,500 hours because a higher than expected pattern of fatigue damage was found in the Dutch case.

Another contributing factor was the way the aircraft was flown. If it was flown at high speeds, wear and tear on the rotor head increased dramatically. Almost all the Navy Lynx are fitted with the same monoblock as the Dutch helicopter and 44 were found to have exceeded the new reduced safety limit.

A programme of replacement has been agreed with Westland fitting a new bolted titanium rotor head. The first 18 should be available by the end of May although the entire fleet will take two years to upgrade.

Lewis Moonie, junior defence minister, tried to play down the Lynx problem which comes after disclosures about faulty SA80 guns in the Army and delayed upgrades to RAF Tornado R4 bombers.

"It is obviously a difficult situation but I have to say it is not quite as bad as it sounds," he said. "It is a matter of sharing out the spare hubs we have available to ensure we do have enough helicopters to maintain our operational capabilities. We have a pool of hubs that we can share out between the Army and the Navy.

"It is not a matter of grounding the helicopter but of changing the hub. It is on the training side of it that we will have to double up crews and use more simulators to ensure that they are kept up to scratch."

Senior defence sources argued that the grounding of the aircraft would make a serious hole in the Navy's overall capability.

Opposition spokesmen seized on the news as further proof that the Government was holding back on necessary funding for the MoD.

Menzies Campbell, Liberal Democrat defence spokesman, said: "Our forces can only act effectively when they have the equipment they need. The period of two years until the problem is resolved seems extraordinarily long."

The Tories maintained the pressure on the Government, with Iain Duncan Smith, shadow defence secretary, saying overstretch had now reached intolerable levels.

"This case highlights the problem the Government now has with overstretch in our Armed Forces," he said. "There is no slack left in the system."

Publication date: 2000-04-29 ) 2000, YellowBrix, Inc.

http://realcities.yellowbrix.com/pages/realcities/Story.nsp?story_id=10244622&site=charlotte&ID=realcities&scategory=Computers%3AY2K

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-- (Dee360Degree@aol.com), April 30, 2000