AST.404 Contenders

[rocketeer]

Looking for any information/thoughts on the RAF AST.404 Wessex and Puma replacement contest. Was it a lost opportunity ?Thoughts please?

 

[CJGibson]

new the forum?

http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,28154.0.html

Chris

 

[Armin Derer]

I keep seeing this term AST.404 …
Seems to have been an upgrade program, though I am not sure.
What did the letters stand for?

 

[CJGibson]

Air Staff Target No. 404.

I recommend 'The Air Staff and the Helicopter' for the sorry saga.

Chris

 

[Kiltonge]

Circa May 1984: Shorts MoU with Sikorsky to build components of the S-70 along with final assembly, flight testing and delivery if selected by RAF. Interestingly it was Sikorsky who made the approach, probably recognising the political advantage of assembly in NI. MoU ratified as an agreement at 1984 Farnborough air show.

Proposed RWR, IRCM and ECM seem to have been covered by separate bids by avionics companies.

Edit: further details from Avweek , 10 September 1984. The Shorts S-70As were to be RTM332-powered, estimated 75-125 units. Aircraft modifications, logs support and periodic maintenance also to be conducted by Shorts.

 

[CJGibson]

Interestingly it was Sikorsky who made the approach, probably recognising the political advantage of assembly in NI.

NFS* They were into everything that was going, dunno about 'political advantage' - see the chapter on ALARM in Typhoon to Typhoon and Tiger in The General Staff and The Helicopter.

Chris

*Normal For Shorts

 

[A Tentative Fleet Plan]

According to Westland Aircraft & Rotorcraft: Secret Projects & Cutting-Edge Technology, the WG.38 was Westland's ab-initio design to meet AST.404.

 

[Kiltonge]

Model of the Shorts-Sikorsky S-70 in RAF wraparound camouflage on display at the Ulster Aviation Society museum, Long Kesh. September 2024, 40 years after the proposal