This year, two important events will occur in the C-5 Galaxy transport modernization program. The first milestone came in late March with the US Department of Defense approving the Reliability Enhancement and Re-engining Program, or RERP, to enter low-rate initial production. The second, critical RERP event, completion of developmental flight test, is scheduled for August.
The Galaxy modernization effort is divided into two parts. The first, the ongoing Avionics Modernization Program, or AMP, is now more than thirty percent complete. AMP provides a state-of-the-art glass cockpit and a digital backbone to support the second phase, the more comprehensive RERP upgrades. AMP kit installations have now been completed on forty C-5Bs on two separate modification lines, one at Dover AFB, Delaware, and one at Travis AFB, California. AMP reached initial operational capability with the Air Force in February 2007. As of May 2008, aircraft returned to the fleet have logged more than 30,500 flight hours with the new avionics, many of those hours flown in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
The 439th Airlift Wing at Westover ARB, Massachusetts, received its first AMP aircraft, a C-5B, in February, marking the first Air Force Reserve Command unit to receive the upgraded transports. All previously AMP-modified aircraft had been redelivered to Dover and Travis, completing their fleets. The first non-flight test C-5A is scheduled for induction into the production AMP mod line in September.
The entire 111-aircraft C-5 fleet is expected to receive the AMP modifications by early 2014. The current plan calls for thirteen aircraft to be AMPed this year. Twelve aircraft will be delivered in 2009, fourteen in 2010—the peak year, and then twelve each year from 2011 to 2013. The final two aircraft will be returned to service in early 2014.
The next units to receive the AMP aircraft will be the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve Command. The 433rd AW, the Air Force’s C-5 schoolhouse at Lackland AFB, Texas, will get some modified aircraft in 2009–2010. However, because of the need to have aircraft with both types of avionics to train on until the entire fleet has been AMPed, the Reserve unit will receive the final four aircraft to undergo the AMP mod in 2013–2014.
Later this year, BCC07, a major AMP software upgrade, will be delivered to the fleet. This software will improve reliability, add additional capability, and correct minor shortfalls discovered through operational use in the Integrated Caution, Advisory, and Warning System, or ICAWS; the Malfunction Detection, Analysis, and Recording, or MADAR, system; and onboard diagnostic and flight management systems.
The US government awarded an initial $127.4 million contract on 18 April for the first production C-5M Super Galaxy, which is what the aircraft are called after undergoing both the AMP and RERP modifications. This award provides for materials and fabrication of subassemblies for the first production RERP aircraft, plus Lot 2 long-lead items for an additional three aircraft, and for initial spares.
RERP is the second phase of the C-5 modernization effort. It includes seventy enhancements or replacements of major components and subsystems, such as auxiliary power units, flap and slat tracks, structural modifications, and improved cargo bay lighting. The major RERP upgrade is the installation of GE Aircraft Engines CF6-80C2 commercial engines. These 60,000-pound thrust engines, de-rated to 50,000 pounds thrust, carry the military designation F108-GE-100.
The RERP enhancements are designed to significantly increase fleet availability and allowable cabin loads and to improve reliability, maintainability, and operational performance. The program is expected to dramatically reduce total ownership cost as well as fuel consumption.
There are three C-5M Super Galaxy aircraft in the comprehensive flight and ground test program taking place at various sites, including the Lockheed Martin facility in Marietta, Georgia, and the Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards AFB, California. Often two or three test sorties take place per day. Some of the testing at Edwards included airfield testing at extreme wartime gross takeoff weights of 840,000 pounds.
The two former C-5Bs and one former C-5A have accumulated more than 950 flight hours through May 2008. Aerial refueling qualification with both the KC-135 and KC-10 tankers is expected to occur in June; RERP developmental flight testing is expected to be completed this August. Air Force mission qualification for aircrews and maintainers should start in the first quarter of 2009. The Air Force C-5M operational test and evaluation, or OT&E, is scheduled to begin in August 2009. OT&E is expected to conclude in the first quarter of 2010.
Earlier this year, the Air Force made the decision to limit the existing RERP program to fifty-two aircraft. In addition to the three C-5M test aircraft, which will be brought up to operational standards, the remaining forty-seven C-5Bs and the two C-5Cs will go through the RERP modifications.
The first production RERP aircraft is expected to be inducted into the modification line in June 2009. That aircraft is expected to be redelivered to the Air Force in 2010. Low-rate production will continue through 2013, with three aircraft delivered in 2011, five in 2012, and seven in 2013. Eleven C-5Ms will be delivered per year from 2014 to 2016.
Jeff Rhodes is the associate editor of Code One.
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