Industry devises plans to maintain helicopter fleet capable for many years

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Firms that manufacture the U.S. Army’s helicopter fleet are devising plans to modernize the aircraft — now reaching 40 years old — as a way to keep them flying for many years more.

The Army plans to develop and field two future vertical lift aircraft by the early 2030s — a Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft and a Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft. But officials have acknowledged the present fleet, which took shape within the Eighties, might want to stick around even after the transition is well underway.

“The Apache, the Black Hawk, goes to be around for the subsequent 30 to 40 years,” Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville told reporters on the Army Aviation Association of America’s annual conference, which took place in late April.

Army officials also confirmed that the CH-47 Chinook could find yourself flying for 100 years before retiring around 2060.

Even so, McConville said the present fleet will eventually find yourself on display stands at Army aviation headquarters, very similar to the UH-1 Huey, the OH-58 Kiowa Warrior and the AH-1 Cobra attack helicopter.

There’s not much clarity on when the Army will phase out aircraft in the present fleet, how that may occur and what number of latest aircraft will replace older ones.

The Army’s program executive officer for aviation, Maj. Gen. Robert Barrie, told Defense News in an interview on the AAAA event that he’s hesitant to place timelines on how long the present fleet would proceed to be an element of the fighting force.

“I don’t know what the long run holds,” he said. “On daily basis it’s operating, we owe it to our soldiers for it to be relevant and able to go, and that’s where we’re focused.”

The Army is within the midst of working an aviation force design update, Maj. Gen. Mac McCurry, the Army Aviation Center of Excellence commander, told Defense News in an interview at AAAA. “We’re working on the allocation, the premise of issue, probably indirectly one-for-one for a Black Hawk, with an increased capability. You almost certainly don’t need the identical amount in each formation. So we’re looking and doing the modeling and what number of do you wish.”

McCurry said the Army could have more fidelity to make a choice on force structure once the long run vertical lift programs get into engineering and manufacturing development phases; that’s when the service can see how the brand new aircraft perform in developmental and operational testing in comparison with the roles and missions the Army wants for the systems.

“Then we are going to probably give you the option to more readily optimize the fleets and see those sorts of downward curves on the platforms we’ve got today,” he added.

Upgrades for existing aircraft

A number of the current fleet is kind of young based on when the last airframes were built together with recent upgrades, McCurry argued. The Apache fleet was an older one, but now it’s considered younger because essentially the most recent variant and upgrade plans are newer, he explained.

The UH-60 fleet is about 16 years old on average, and the Chinook fleet is about 9 years old for numerous aircraft.

“After I take a look at the actual flight hours on the platforms, they’re fairly young,” McCurry said.

The Army at once, based on Barrie, is targeted on ensuring the present fleet is protected and maintains a baseline capability. Baseline capabilities include making all aircraft within the fleet digital to permit for upgrades, he explained, and increasing the processing power inside the aircraft.

And modernizing the present fleet to have the identical modular, open-system architecture to proceed to import capability and upgrades goes to be key.

The service can be injecting more funding in its fiscal 2024 budget for survivability equipment as adversaries advance capabilities and tactics, Barrie noted.

Radio and communication modifications are also happening, including improvements to Link 16 technolgoy, which connects aircraft with ground forces.

Moreover, each the Black Hawk and Apache helicopters are because of receive a brand new, next-generation engine starting in the subsequent few years, albeit several years delayed.

Apache Echo-models are receiving the most recent upgrade — the V6 — which was first fielded to units in 2021.

Maintaining with the long run fleet

At recent trade shows, defense contractor Boeing has begun to showcase what it could do for the Apache beyond its latest version.

“It levels things up, embraces, incorporates latest transformation technology, and then you definitely get performance gains,” Jenny Walker, who’s in business development for Boeing’s Apache program, told reporters on the AAAA event.

The Apache model on display featured an extra wing pylon, joining the 2 already there on the present version, to supply additional weapons in a greater variety onboard. The corporate also showed an idea for a directed-energy capability on one among the pylons.

Adding additional payloads to the aircraft, Walker said, is made possible through the Improved Turbine Engine Program, or ITEP, engine, which shall be integrated into Apache helos in the approaching years, in addition to drivetrain and tail-rotor improvements that may allow the aircraft to fly 135 nautical miles to an objective and stay there for an hour or more and return. The present Apache would likely give you the option to remain out at the target for roughly half-hour, she added.

Lockheed Martin has also designed a next-generation turret for the Apache’s sensors that help it see and goal threats. The turret will enable easier upgrades down the road but in addition reduces maintenance time and has a faster slew capability for pilots to maintain eyes on targets and accurately fire weapons. The turret will go right into a yearlong soldier evaluation this month.

Lockheed’s Sikorsky is prioritizing ensuring the Black Hawk’s compatibility to operate alongside the Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft, Paul Lemmo, the subsidiary’s president, said in an interview at AAAA.

The corporate desires to “ensure they’ll interoperate — doesn’t mean they should be the identical, but they must be operating on the identical open-system standard,” he said.

The corporate can be taking a look at the potential application of digital vehicle controls for the aircraft that may enable the insertion of capabilities like Sikorsky’s Matrix, an autonomy system that may not take over for pilots entirely but would offload a few of the work so that they can give attention to the mission. The system will even increase safety by autonomously avoiding accidents like midair collisions and flying through degraded visual environments.

While the Chinook F-model Block II just isn’t yet fielded to the lively force, it can provide additional lift capability. The unique plan was to swap out the rotor blades with latest advanced ones, but trouble with blade stall and vibration in testing led the Army to cancel the trouble a 12 months ago.

Barrie said the advanced rotor blade’s technical issues, paired with the associated fee of the blade, stays “fundamentally unchanged,” however the Army has continued with Block II development and learned that even with the older blades the system is meeting performance requirements.

“I even have the paddles out with the U.S. Army attempting to keep that patient alive,” Boeing’s vice chairman and H-47 program manager, Ken Eland, said at AAAA in regards to the advanced rotor blades. “I would love to see that press forward. There’s some challenges we’re working through with them timing-wise, but we’re keen on attempting to keep it on life support.”