Singapore, 15 January 2013 ST Aerospace today announced that it has secured a contract to provide the Royal Air Force of Oman (RAFO) with a full scale maintenance and modernisation solution for three of its C130 Hercules aircraft. ST Aerospace will undertake both modernisation and maintenance work at its facility in Paya Lebar, Singapore.

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. A significant part of the contract also involves the modernisation of the aircraft cockpit, which is complex in nature and involves extensive aircraft wire tear down and re-wire. The first aircraft is expected to be inducted in the third quarter of 2013, targeting for redelivery in the first quarter of 2014.

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

An integrated service provider, ST Aerospace leverages its maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) expertise, as well as its strong in-house engineering capability, and value adds through performing depot level maintenance and cockpit modernisation simultaneously. With a short turnaround time of five months, RAFO will enjoy increased savings with minimised downtime of its fleet. 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. ~ Air Vice Marshal Matar Ali AL-OBAIDANI, Commander Royal Air Force of Oman

We are indeed honoured to be awarded this contract and are grateful for RAFOs continued trust in our company, to provide its fleet with quality and dependable solutions. We are proud of our long term relationship with the RAFO for over 20 years and are looking forward to this opportunity to further strengthen our successful partnership. ST Aerospace shall leverage our vast experience and expertise on the C130 Hercules aircraft platform to ensure that we deliver to the RAFO a highly reliable and effective system. ~ CHANG Cheow Teck, President, ST Aerospace

ST Aerospaces relationship with RAFO began in 1988, when the air force selected it to perform component repairs for the C130 Hercules fleet. Through the years, the partnership progressed to include airframe, component and engine MRO. With this contract, the partnership is further extended to include modernisation of their C130 Hercules aircraft.

An approved Lockheed Martin Hercules service centre, ST Aerospace is the premier one stop centre for the C130 Hercules aircraft. With extensive experience and expertise, coupled with comprehensive capabilities in airframe structural repair and design and modification, to component and engine R&O, ST Aerospace has redelivered more than 500 C130 aircraft to date, providing nose to tail solutions to C130 operators globally.

This contract is not expected to have any material impact on the consolidated net tangible assets per share and earnings per share of ST Engineering for the current financial year.

Note to Editors: CNS/ATM Communication, navigation, surveillance often associated with air traffic management.

*****

Follow this link:

ST Aerospace Secures C130 Contract from Royal Air Force of Oman