Jordan lays down a Marka...

Marka is the home of the Prince Hashim Bin Abdullah II Aviation Brigade, Jordan’s Special Forces air support unit, which includes 28 Squadron (equipped with Hughes 500Es and MD530FFs), 30 Squadron (equipped with Sikorsky UH-60L Blackhawks) and 31 Squadron (notionally equipped with three An-32s).

The status of the Jordanian An-32s is uncertain. Only one (3010) of the three supposedly delivered has actually been seen and this had been moved to the Royal Jordanian Air Force (RJAF) ‘museum ramp’ by the time the 2012 SOFEX exhibition opened.

The exhibition highlights the key role that special operations forces play in protecting the citizens of every nation and in safeguarding growth and prosperity, and helps to provide such forces with the kit, technology and solutions they require to fulfil their vital responsibility.

SOFEX is a biennial four-day event supported by the Jordan Armed Forces and held under the royal patronage of His Majesty King Abdullah II. It is chaired by HRH Prince Feisal Bin Al Hussein.

SOFEX was founded by King Abdullah in 1996 and has grown to become a vital gathering for international special operations, counter-terrorism and homeland security decision makers, high-ranking defence officials and the industries that support the sector. It is the only exhibition and conference of its kind in the MENA region but is rapidly gaining a global significance.

The conference and exhibition provides a useful opportunity for networking – attendees included 70 official delegations from 33 countries, heads of state, defence ministers and their officials, and high-ranking military and government decision makers.

This makes SOFEX an ideal platform for manufacturers to present the new and innovative equipment and solutions that are required in the face of today’s increasingly complex and ever growing security challenges.

The event attracted sponsorship from an impressive array of local and international sponsors, including the Jordanian King Abdullah II Design and Development Bureau (KADDB); investment group KIG; and Northrop Grumman, backed up by Royal Jordanian Airlines, Arab Ready Meals, Orange, DRS Technologies and Lockheed Martin.

This year’s SOFEX opened with a special operations commanders’ conference and was followed by a world-class three-day exhibition, showcasing ground-breaking special operations equipment and technology, much of which was being displayed for the first time in the Middle East.

Amer Tabbah, managing director of SOFEX, expected this year’s event to be the biggest and most successful edition to date and highlighted the achievements of his all-Jordanian team which, he said, had been working tirelessly to ensure the event would be “yet another success story for Jordan and its people”.

The exhibition was officially opened by the king on Tuesday May 8, the official ‘Delegations Day’, in the presence of several members of the royal family and a host of VIP guests.

King Abdullah, the son of the late King Hussein, is a qualified Cobra attack helicopter pilot who served as a tactics instructor with the Royal Jordanian Air Force's Helicopter Anti-Tank Wing.

His Majesty is also a qualified frogman and free-fall parachutist, and is an avid gun collector.

First and foremost, he was a professional Army officer, with a particular affection for and long-standing link with special operations. After serving in a number of armoured and aviation appointments, he served as deputy commander of the Jordanian Special Forces on promotion to Colonel in January 1993, and subsequently becoming commander in June 1994 after being promoted to the rank of Brigadier General.

He was subsequently appointed Commander of the Special Operations Command in October 1997. SOFEX is, thus, very much King Abdullah’s event.

The opening ceremony was followed by a special operations force role demonstration. This began with a simulated airfield attack by four F-16s, before an MD530FF from 28 Squadron made mock attacks, clearing the way for an assault by four UH-60L Blackhawks from 30 Squadron. Some special forces troops rappelled on to the roof of a mocked-up airport departures building, before they and other troops assaulted the building. A dog then attacked an escaping terrorist before a C-130H from 3 Squadron demonstrated a tactical landing to recover the special forces troops.

The UH-60Ls demonstrated at SOFEX are dedicated to special operations, with large ‘SO’ prefixed serial numbers on the rear fuselage, and on the engine nacelles. The aircraft have the prominent hover IR suppression system (HIRSS) characteristic of the UH-60L, designed to cool engine exhaust gasses while hovering and in forward flight. They also have a nose-mounted radome, similar to that originally fitted to the Mitsubishi-Sikorsky UH-60J, and believed to house a colour weather radar.

The UH-60Ls were supported by a pair of MD530FFs, which also wore prominent special operations badges on the fuselage and tail, but which lacked the ‘SO’ prefixed serials.

The MD530FF is a hot and high version of the MD500E powered by a 650shp (485 kW) Allison 250-C30B turboshaft engine, with main-rotor blades six inches longer than those of the MD 500E, and with the tailboom extended eight inches. The tail rotor blades are lengthened to provide increased thrust and improved directional control at high altitudes.

The ‘Delegations Day’ was followed by two further trade days. The Royal Jordanian Falcons displayed on all three days and there were also ground/air mobility and tactical displays.

On days three and four there were small calibre live firing demonstrations at the King Abdullah II Special Operations Training Centre (KASOTC). This is a one-of-a-kind, $200 million facility located on a 25sqkm site in a former quarry near Amman. The range operations control (ROC) centre is connected to hundreds of cameras, microphones, battlefield effects and target systems, and a wide variety of simulators via a comprehensive fibre optic network. This allows real-time tracking of forces undergoing training and provides the means for detailed post-mission analysis and debriefing. This all makes KASOTC a fully integrated, cutting-edge, advanced technology training centre manned by elite instructors.

The centre includes shooting and driving ranges, simulated urban areas, and a two-storey ‘shooting house’ with an adjacent five-storey tower for live firearms training, and for instructing in room-to-room combat techniques and combined assaults. There is also a ‘method-of-entry facility’ and even an airport control tower and real, full-scale Airbus A300 airliner. The aircraft is fully instrumented and its seats contain target dummies that can be remotely controlled to stand up or sit down. 

KASOTC claims that it offers the best reality-based training in the world for special operations forces, counter-terrorism and law enforcement units, and makes its facilities available for hire for tailored training packages, or in-house training or joint exercises, with accommodation for up to 1,000 personnel.

Immediately before SOFEX, KASOTC played host to the annual Warrior competition, with 33 special forces teams from 16 nations (Afghanistan, Austria, Brunei, China, France, Germany, Italy, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Palestine, Qatar, Spain, the USA and Uganda) competing. Teams from Algeria and Iraq were withdrawn before the competition started and Oman and the UAE sent observers. One US team was from a civilian sheriff ’s SWAT team from Alameda County, California!

The four-day competition tested a wide variety of special forces disciplines, skills and techniques, from planning to weapons handling and marksmanship and even communications, with a special King’s Challenge, which saw the competing teams tackling a 10km relay course with various shooting challenges along the way. The winning team was from Germany’s elite GSG9 counter-terrorism unit (GSG9 celebrates its 40th anniversary this year), with last year’s winners, Austria’s Einsatzkommando Cobra, taking second place.

Though primarily showing small arms, vehicles and equipment for land forces, SOFEX has always had an aviation flavour as well and helicopters, small fixed-wing aircraft and UAVs have always formed an essential part of the mix.

Eurocopter highlighted its dedication to meeting the operational requirements of governments, armed forces and special mission operators across the Arab world, displaying two full-scale helicopters in the shape of an EC635T2 of the Jordanian Police and a Royal Jordanian Air Force AS350B3, together with models of the AS565 Panther and the AS550 Fennec.

Jordan has operated Eurocopter helicopters for more than 30 years. The Royal Jordanian Air Force runs ten AS332M1 Cougars for troop transport and search and rescue, as well as three ex-UAE AS350s for pilot training and VIP duties. Jordan has also taken delivery of 13 EC635s, the military version of the light twin-engined EC135 helicopter, nine of them EC635T1 versions serving with the RJAF and four of them EC635T2s serving with the Jordan Public Security (police) Air Wing.
Olivier Lambert, Eurocopter’s senior vice president for sales and customer relations, explained that the company had an extensive footprint in Arab nations with more than 650 of its helicopters currently flying across the Middle East and the Arabian Gulf – more than 80% of them in military use fulfilling combat, transport, SAR, counter-terrorism, special operations and training missions.

He said that Eurocopter “looked forward to continuing its role as a preferred helicopter supplier for the full spectrum of military and civilian use”, and highlighted the helicopters’ ability to perform their missions in what he called “the most severe operational environments and demanding situations”.

Eurocopter hopes for new and expanded business opportunities in the region, both for fleet renewal, but also to meet new requirements with a growing need for helicopters for counter-terrorism, internal security, border patrol and other missions.

The company also expects a growth in civilian rotorcraft operations resulting from the opening up of previously restricted airspace.

Eurocopter’s display of a scale model AS565 Panther reflects the type’s suitability for Middle East operations – the Panther is already in use in the United Arab Emirates, Morocco and Saudi Arabia for coastal protection, SAR and offshore economic zone surveillance. Fast and agile, the twin-engined AS565 is also well suited to security, special operations and defence missions.

The AS550 Fennec, which was also shown in model form, has also proved to be well suited for operation in extremely hot climates and at high altitudes. More than 4,850 helicopters from Eurocopter’s Ecureuil/Fennec family have been delivered to nearly 100 countries in single-engine and twin-engine versions. Operators in the region include the Royal Moroccan Gendarmerie, the Omani Royal Flight, the United Arab Emirates’ armed forces and the Royal Jordanian Air Force.
Eurocopter has a significant support presence in the wider region, with a maintenance centre in the United Arab Emirates operated in partnership with Falcon Aviation Services, and an agreement with Abu Dhabi-based Global Aerospace Logistics to provide customer support services, including technical publications, training and spares.

The RJAF remains committed to purchasing 18 Boeing AH-6i attack helicopters, for which a letter of intent was signed at SOFEX 2010. However, there has been a delay with the Arab Spring and unrest in Syria causing some diversion of Jordan’s defence budget funds.

The RJAF continues to operate 33 AH-1F Cobra attack helicopters but it is not yet clear whether the new AH-6i helicopters would augment, support or replace the ageing Cobras, or whether they would be dedicated to special forces support duties.

Surprisingly, no AH-6i was present at SOFEX this year.

Another notable absentee was Jordan’s new CN235-100M gunship. The two ex-Spanish Air Force aircraft were both seen test flying at Seville last year, fully painted in a smart dark grey colour scheme, with Jordanian national markings and serials, ‘Jordan Special Operations Aviation’ titles and large special operations badges on the nose and under the port wing.

The gunship version of the CN235 was designed by the Special Mission Aircraft division of Alliant Techsystems (ATK), in conjunction with KADDB and was based on ATK’s light gunship special mission aircraft capabilities package and STAR mission system.

ATK has considerable expertise in mission systems architecture and design and in the integration and certification of complex sub-systems, which it is now leveraging on ‘weaponised’ aircraft. The company integrated light attack and ISTAR capabilities on two Cessna Caravans for the Iraqi Air Force two years ago. The RJAF also operates the Caravan.

ATK’s CN235-100M gunship conversion provides a robust day/night ISR solution, combined with real precision strike/close air support capabilities. The aircraft is to be fitted with a side-firing M230LF 30mm chain gun (a low recoil weapon also used by the AH-64 Apache helicopter), firing through the rearmost cabin window on the port side, and will have outrigger stub wings fitted with hardpoints to allow the carriage of AGM-114M/K Hellfire laser-guided air-to-surface missiles, and 70mm/2.75in rockets.

Conversion of the aircraft, which have been refurbished by Airbus Military at Seville, will be undertaken at ATK’s facilities in Fort Worth, TX, Mesa, AZ and Pelham, AL, and they will be delivered by the late spring of 2013.

At the other end of the size spectrum, Turkey’s Eastern Security Services promoted its Aeroseeker Aero-405, a new lightweight unmanned aerial surveillance system, previously seen only in model form.

The 1.5kg carbon-fibre vehicle carries a 500-700g payload, including a high-definition still or TV camera, or specialised equipment, such as a Geiger counter or similar.

Controlled via a laptop-based system, the Aero-405 can stream imagery back to the ground station or store it on an SSD card. It has a range of 2km, a ceiling of 8,000ft and an endurance of up to 35 minutes.

The air element at SOFEX extended beyond manned and unmanned aircraft, however. AdvanTac Technologies, for example, displayed its new Air Ace survival vest. This features a SnapTrack modular attachment system, which allows a variety of different pockets (from a choice of more than 40) to be attached to meet the demands of different missions and requirements. The Air Ace vest has been tested at more than 600kts on an ejection seat test bed sled.

SOFEX looks set to continue to provide special operations and law enforcement forces with the equipment and solutions they need in order to deliver swift, decisive and effective solutions, which will in turn help to maintain the security and safety of their respective countries in the Middle East and around the world.