This story was updated Oct. 11, 2023, at 1:02 p.m. EST to incorporate a more detailed job title for Douglas Sanders.
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Army is nearing a final decision on whether and the way much to speculate in Chinook Block II helicopter upgrades, and it’s committed to purchasing a brand new engine and the newest software version for the Apaches. But Boeing, which makes each aircraft, is developing and demonstrating more extensive upgrade options in a bid to assist the service boost the survivability, connectivity and capability of its legacy helicopters.
Boeing is already helping the Army modernize the decades-old workhorses by adding more carrying capability to the CH-47 Chinook and greater firepower to the AH-64 Apache. And despite the vastly different missions of the 2 helicopters, the corporate’s program offices are leveraging one another’s work to appreciate these evolutions.
Mark Ballew, the senior director for vertical lift business development at Boeing, told Defense News on the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual conference this week that flight controls is an area where work on the Chinook heavy-lift program is directly affecting the corporate’s pitch for an Apache attack helo upgrade.
The Chinook has a Digital Advanced Flight Control System, which incorporates an energetic parallel actuator subsystem, or APAS, that may get the helicopter right into a stable hover after which move the aircraft in 1-foot increments laterally or vertically for a really controlled maneuver. Ballew said that is critical for lift missions in high-dust or other low-visibility environments, or around wires or other hazards. It allows missions to happen more safely and with less work for the crew, he noted.
Even when the Apache doesn’t must hover to select up sling-loaded cargo just like the Chinook does, there are still reasons to contemplate putting these APAS controls on the Apache, in response to Douglas Sanders, the capture team lead for modernized Apache mission systems at Boeing’s business development unit.
The Apache gunship has to perform reconnaissance, maneuvers, fires and more for its missions — but “not crashing the helicopter is type of an implied task,” Sanders said. Adding APAS would scale back the workload on crew members and help them give attention to conducting their missions safely.
Ballew said Boeing conducts after-action reviews with returning helicopter crews and appears at feedback indicators on the aircraft themselves; there are already indications the Apache crews are pushing the boundaries of what their aircraft can do during some missions.
Sanders explained the APAS hardware is “currently in flight testing within the special operations MH-47, and we’re taking a look at the [CH-47] Chinook as well. We took quite a lot of what they developed and said: ‘How can we apply this to the Apache?’ And we’re demonstrating it right over there in our simulator” at Boeing’s booth on the AUSA conference.
Sanders said a number of the proposed changes are specific to the platforms. For instance, on the Apache, crews getting back from deployment have said they don’t need 1,200 rounds of 30mm ammunition, but they do need more fuel and so they want more capability for missiles, spurring some changes to the so-called Modernized Apache design.
But many other efforts have been common across Apache and Chinook aircraft. Each helicopters have the identical multifunctional displays, for instance.
Sanders said the Apache program wants to maneuver to a big area touchscreen display to make the user interface even easier while further reducing the workload for the crew. He said the massive area touchscreen would also fit into the Chinook, should the Army intend to make the same investment across its aircraft types.
Boeing can be pitching common survivability and communications upgrades, which apply to each mission sets and are agnostic to the helicopters’ designs and flight profiles.
Megan Eckstein is the naval warfare reporter at Defense News. She has covered military news since 2009, with a give attention to U.S. Navy and Marine Corps operations, acquisition programs and budgets. She has reported from 4 geographic fleets and is happiest when she’s filing stories from a ship. Megan is a University of Maryland alumna.