ST Engineering wins Oman C130 contract

The aerospace arm of Singapore Technologies Engineering, Singapore Technologies Aerospace, will provide a full scale maintenance and modernisation solution for three of the Royal Air Force of Oman’s (RAFO’s) C130 Hercules aircraft. The work will be performed as part of a new contract, announced on 15 January.

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. The company will also carry out work to modernise the aircraft cockpit – complex work that will involve extensive aircraft wire tear down and re-wire.

Under the modernisation programme, ST Aerospace will equip the 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. According to the company, the RAFO will benefit through improved operational efficiency and lower maintenance requirements, while enhancing its overall aircraft availability.

Air Vice Marshal Matar Ali AL-OBAIDANI, Commander, RAFO, said: ‘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.’

The first aircraft is expected to be inducted in the third quarter of 2013, with redelivery in the first quarter of 2014.