FEATURE ARTICLE

January 2007

Aircraft Fleet Modernization Gains Momentum

By Harold Kennedy

During the next six years, the Army will procure 1,000 rotary and fixed-wing aircraft. In addition, the service plans to restore 1,655 Black Hawks, Chinooks, and Apaches as they return from Iraq and Afghanistan.

“Army aviation has completed four years of continuous combat operations,” said the director of Army aviation, Brig. Gen. Stephen D. Mundt. “During this time, we have flown more than one million hours on our manned and unmanned aircraft systems.”

As part of its so-called “reset” program, the Army is repairing any battle or crash damage that the aircraft might have incurred. It also is providing them with the latest aircraft survivability equipment, including anti-aircraft missile detectors, jammers and chaff and flare countermeasure devices.

At the Corpus Christi Army Depot, in Texas, the service has a $275 million contract with Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., of Stratford Conn., to overhaul existing Black Hawks. The Army also is buying new copies of the latest version of the Black Hawk, the UH-60M.

The Boeing Co., of Chicago, is upgrading the Chinooks to either the CH-47F or the MH-47G special operations configuration. That work is being performed at Boeing’s helicopter factory in Ridley Park, Pa., as part of a 2003 contract worth up to $140 million.

Boeing also is refurbishing Apaches at its facility in Mesa, Ariz., under a 2005 contract worth as much as $41.5 million. The Apache program aims to return aircraft to service within 60 days.

The rate of production for the common missile warning system and improved countermeasure dispenser has been doubled, Mundt noted. This system –- being installed on Apaches, Black Hawks and Chinooks — automatically detects an incoming missile and dispenses the appropriate countermeasure, removing the pilot in the loop.

“We also have installed ballistic armor aircraft protection systems on the UH-60 and CH-47 aircraft, and blue force tracking on the AH-64, UH-60 and CH-47,” Mundt said.

In November, the Army’s Aviation and Missile Life Cycle Management Command awarded Westar Aerospace & Defense Group Inc., of St. Louis, a $2.7 million contract to install information-management technology at nine reset sites across the United States and in Germany. This system is designed to provide commanders and aviation support personnel with improved access to readiness and logistics-management information, said Steve Walters, Westar’s vice president for technology development.

The service is remanufacturing 300 of its existing 431 CH-47D Chinook helicopters into a new generation known as the CH-47F. The Chinook is the Army’s only heavy lift cargo rotorcraft capable of moving payloads greater than 9,000 pounds. The latest version can transport 33 troops or 24 first-aid litters, plus its crew of three. It also can carry 26,000 pounds slung from a center hook underneath its belly, 17,000 pounds from a forward hook or 25,000 pounds using both hooks in tandem.

The CH-47F will feature a digital cockpit that permits installation of enhanced communications and navigation equipment. The same cockpit will be used in the MH-47G special operations Chinook and the HH-47 proposed for the Air Force combat search and rescue program.

Airframe structural modifications will reduce vibrations, lower operational and support costs, and improve crew endurance. Additional airframe alterations will provide a 60 percent reduction in the time required to tear down or build up the aircraft after it is deployed on a C-5 or C-17 transport.

The rebuilt Chinook also is getting more powerful Honeywell T55-GA-714A engines that improve fuel efficiency and enhance lift performance by 3,900 pounds.

Boeing also is remanufacturing its two decade-old AH-64A Apaches and their follow-ons, the AH-64D Longbows, some of which are approaching their first decade of life. The work involves cleaning and repair of all components, including damaged and crash parts, and complete testing when maintenance is finished.

The Army, meanwhile, still is buying new Longbows. In August, it received its 501st aircraft. “Follow-on orders for new and remanufactured Apache Longbows and the looming Block III effort for the Army mean continued production and support for the Apache for years to come,” said Al Winn, vice president of Apache programs at the Apache rotorcraft facility in Mesa.

At Corpus Christi, Sikorsky is helping the Army to restore its three-decade UH-60A Black Hawks. That work involves repairing and overhauling transmissions, main and tail rotor blades and spindles.

Sikorsky is teaming with the depot to provide service support, including aircraft crash repair kits, inventory management, line support and other services. Corpus Christi, the Army’s only depot-level maintenance facility, specializes in overhauling and repairing the service’s aircraft.

In July 2006, Sikorsky rolled out its first production-model UH-60M. The company is developing the UH-60M under a series of contracts dating back to 2001. It received three totaling more than $430 million in January 2006 alone.

Currently, the UH-60M is in operational testing and evaluation. Once that phase is completed, the Army plans to equip a combat unit with the aircraft. Eventually, it plans procure 1,200 or more of them, replacing older generations of Black Hawks.

The UH-60M provides additional payload and range, advanced digital avionics, easier handling capabilities, active vibration control, improved survivability and high-speed machined parts. Its new composite spar, wide-chord blade provides 500 pounds more lift than the current UH-60L blade. An advanced General Electric T700-GE-701D engine will add more shaft horsepower and allow additional lift during external lift operations.

The cockpit includes multi-function displays, flight-management systems, modern flight-control computers with a fully coupled autopilot, an integrated vehicle health-management system with flight data and cockpit voice recorder, inertial navigation systems with embedded global positioning systems, improved data modem and redesigned heads-up displays. A narrower cockpit instrument panel also improves chin window visibility.

In June 2006, the Army chose the UH-145 military helicopter, to be built by the Eurocopter Group, as its next-generation light utility helicopter. The service plans eventually to procure 322 of the aircraft at a cost of more than $2 billion. It was the first U.S. military contract for Eurocopter, a division of EADS, a European aerospace and defense manufacturer.

The UH-145 is a variant of the EC145 multi-mission helicopter, which is used worldwide for law enforcement, emergency medical evacuation, search and rescue, offshore and utility operations and corporate transportation. It is intended to help replace the Army’s Vietnam-era UH-1H Huey multi-mission chopper and the 15-year-old Kiowa Warrior.

During the following month, the Bell ARH-70, an armed reconnaissance helicopter, completed its first two flights. In 2005, the Army had awarded Bell Helicopter, of Fort Worth, Texas, a $2.2 billion contract to build 368 ARH-70s between 2006 and 2013, to help fill the Kiowa Warrior’s role in reconnaissance and attack missions.

The ARH-70 is a militarized version of Bell’s 407 single-engine light helicopter. It is designed to provide enhanced abilities to conduct reconnaissance and light attack flights.

The ARH-70 is equipped with an array of weapons, including a 2,000-round-per-minute Gatling gun, 2.75-inch rockets and Hellfire missiles. It has state-of-the-art, glass cockpit avionics and operates day and night in limited weather environments.

The 2007 defense appropriation included $72 million for the Army to buy two joint cargo aircraft to begin replacing its small transports. The service expects to award a contract in February or March, Mundt said.

The Army and the Air Force have agreed they need a total of 145 of the aircraft, which are needed to deliver small amounts of troops and cargo to and from relatively short, unimproved airfields, he explained. The Army, which will get 75 of them, plans to begin fielding in 2008. The Air Force will claim the remaining 70 starting two years later.

Leading contenders for the contract include EADS’ CASA 295 and Alenia Aeronautica North America’s C-27J Spartan.

Army aviation modernization efforts also include unmanned aircraft, Mundt said. “The Army uses unmanned aircraft systems from platoon through corps levels, most operation by enlisted soldiers and most focused at the tactical level.”

The service employs three types of unmanned aircraft, the small Raven, the tactical Shadow and the extended-range, multi-purpose Warrior. A total of 34 Shadows and 376 Ravens have been fielded. “More than 300 of these systems are currently in operation in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Mundt said. They have flown more than 83,000 hours in support of combat operations, identifying and targeting enemy positions.

Please email your comments to HKennedy@ndia.org

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