The role of Army helicopters in Iraq as combat workhorses
has bolstered the notion that rotary-wing aircraft, for most missions, are unlikely
to be replaced by unmanned vehicles.
The upshot is a renewed emphasis on long-term investments in research and development
for manned aviation, which has suffered in recent years, as funding flowed to
unmanned programs.
The experience in Iraq also has spurred upgrade programs for current helicopters,
in areas such as sensors and survivability, officials said.
Hundreds of millions of dollars will be needed to not only improve current
technologies in support of helicopters, but also to repair at least 600 aircraft
that will be coming back from Iraq and will need to be restored and returned
to the front lines within a year.
Another reason why the Army is paying renewed attention to manned aviation
is the anticipated need for a heavy-lift helicopter than can carry several times
more payload than the CH-47 Chinook.
The Defense Department and the military services are evaluating concept studies
for a “joint vertical airlift” program. A decision on the project’s
future could come within the next several months, said Maj. Gen. Joseph Bergantz,
Army program executive officer for aviation.
The Army gradually is seeing a “shift in focus from unmanned to manned”
aviation, Bergantz told the Helicon conference, hosted by the Institute for
Defense and Government Advancement. “There is a push to reinvigorate science
and technology strategic investments in manned aviation,” he said. “Perhaps
the pendulum swung too far in favor of unmanned systems.”
This is good news for aviation, he said. “That’s the most encouraging
thing I’ve seen” in a long time.
It now appears that the Army wants to “reorient efforts to JTR, or joint
tactical rotorcraft,” said John M. Davis, chief of advanced aviation design
at the Army Research, Development and Engineering Command.
During the past two years, “our work has been very ‘unmanned-centric,’”
Davis said at the conference. “Within the last few months, I think we
have been really trying to evolve back into a balance between the manned and
the unmanned systems.”
UAVs are important to the Army, even though they will not necessarily replace
manned helicopters, but rather will be employed as part of “manned-unmanned”
aviation teams, he said. The goal is to “develop technology that will
support both manned and unmanned, recognizing that teaming and collaboration
are going to be key elements in how the future force will be fighting.”
Army Col. William Gavora, commander of the Aviation Applied Technology Directorate,
said the capabilities of UAVs have been overestimated. “There is a general
misperception in the country that UAVs can do everything that manned aircraft
do,” he said in a presentation to the Defense News ISR Integration conference.
“I do not share that opinion,” Gavora said. “UAVs do not
have the curiosity or the intuition or the judgment to make decisions. ... But
if we team these things properly, the synergy will be greater than operating
independently.”
To reflect the changing priorities, the RDE Command is rewriting the aviation
science and technology strategic plan, said Davis. The Army is seeking input
from the other services to develop a “joint vision of the future.”
The Army is responsible for all Defense Department science and technology rotorcraft
work, Davis noted. “We want to live up to that obligation.”
The current fleets of Apaches, Black Hawks, Kiowa Warriors and Chinooks, meanwhile,
could benefit from “technology insertion” to address pressing problems,
such as poor visibility in dust storms and poor logistics support, said Gary
S. Nenninger, Army project manager for aviation systems.
Aviation logistics is a “hot button issue,” Nenninger said at the
IDGA forum.
Maintaining and supporting aircraft in Iraq is dirty work. Not only are the
conditions inherently detrimental to helicopters—particularly the fine
moon-dust that penetrates every nook and cranny—but aviators also lack
adequate tools to manage spare parts and aircraft components.
The Army is working on a “global common support system,” to be
fielded in 2006, said Nenninger. But efforts also are under way to improve logistics
in the near term, he added.
The commander of an Apache battalion during Operation Iraqi Freedom, Lt. Col.
Dan Williams, told the IDGA conference that his unit, as well as the entire
Apache fleet deployed in Iraq, had problems with “support, maintenance
and power generation.”
Until logistics support improves, the aviation units will suffer, “no
matter how technologically advanced we are,” Williams said.
Helicopter accidents resulting from “brownouts” continue to plague
the Army, Bergantz said.
About 75 percent of all accidents in Iraq and Afghanistan have been caused
by brownouts, with Black Hawks and Chinooks having the most problems. The Army
is evaluating new sensors and training techniques to help pilots survive in
these dangerous sandstorms.