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Aviation History
2004
2004-07 - 0006.PDF
HEADLINES COVER STORY STEPHEN TRIMBLE / WASHINGTON DC US Army calls time on Comanche Cancellation of the helicopter programme will help finance a $14.6 billion overhaul of the service's aviation arm No effective opposition has emerged to block a US Army pro posal last week to bankroll a $14.6 billion overhaul of its aviation branch by cancelling the Boeing/Sikorsky RAH-66 Comanche helicopter. Congress is expected to vote within two weeks to scrap Comanche, the trouble some centrepiece of the army avia tion's weapons strategy since its inception in 1983. The cancellation comes after $6.9 billion has been spent on the project. If approved, the army will launch a sweeping modernisation using the leftover funds from the Comanche's five-year spending plan. Three new aircraft pro grammes - for 368 armed recon naissance helicopters, 303 light utility helicopters and 25 fixed- wing intratheatre transports - are to be launched. But the army's first priority is accelerating the deployment of active protection systems against surface-to-air missile threats to the existing fleet. Comanche's downfall would also result in upgrading 284 Boeing AH-64D Apache Longbows to Block 3 standard. Funds would be earmarked to raise next year's Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk pur chase from 101 to 181, and add 56 more Boeing CH-47 Chinooks. Another $300 million would be invested in accelerating unmanned air vehicle programmes, including the proposed extended-range mul tipurpose unmanned air vehicle. Research and development would begin for the Joint Multirole Helicopter, due to begin replacing the H-60 after 2020. "We want to buy 800 new air craft, fully [recapitalise] 1,400 of our aircraft, fully wire our fleet for air craft survivability equipment, and double the buy of...jammers and chaff and flare systems," says US Army operations deputy chief Lt Gen Richard Cody. "It fully fleshes out the multifunctional brigades we're building for the army, and it moves us towards modularity." Boeing and Sikorsky are left with two RAH-66 prototypes and five Two Comanche prototypes have flown and five more were in assembly machines now in various stages of assembly. Termination payments to the contractors are expected to cost $450-680 million, minimally offsetting an estimated industry loss of about $2.7 billion. At least 1,600 workers at Sikorsky, Boeing and Lockheed Martin, plus 400 government employees, will be affected by the decision. The proposal dramatically caps army chief of staff Gen Peter Schoomaker's six-month review of the aviation branch, tasked with identifying capability gaps, trans ferring special-operations capabili ties to the conventional helicopter force and proposing a modular unit structure that is easier to deploy. Army aviation, however, has been saddled with a massive mod ernisation bill dominated by Comanche development, which was expected to consume 40% of the force's overall funding resources through 2009. But with nine US helicopters shot down in Iraq, there is an urgent requirement to deploy active self- protection systems, leading army leaders to question Comanche's potential vulnerability on a modern battlefield. Designed to be stealthy, the RAH-66 lacks an active jammer. "The operational environment has changed," says Cody. "[In addi tion] we now have new types of capabilities to deal with the radar threat environment that 13 or 14 years ago we did not have in the joint force." DEFENCE STEPHEN TRIMBLE / WASHINGTON DC Helicopter jammer need sparks bidding feud despite unity plea An acrimonious bidding war has erupted between BAE Systems and Northrop Grumman over the US Army's urgent call for active self-protection systems on helicopters. Senior army leaders have encouraged the two com petitors to work together to speed the delivery of a directed infrared countermeasure system with a multi- band laser jammer to army units deployed in Iraq. The appeal appears to have been spurned on both sides, with one senior executive for BAE Systems openly accusing his rival of inhibiting efforts to improve the safety of US combat troops. "We were disappointed that another defence company was unwilling to heed the army's call for co-operation," says Christopher Ager, business development manager for BAE Systems Information and Electronic Warfare Systems in Nashua, New Hampshire. The army wants the two companies to consider inte grating a Northrop Grumman multiband laser into BAE Systems' Advanced Threat Infrared Countermeasures (ATIRCM) unit, which relies on a single-band laser and heat lamp. But Northrop Grumman director of infrared counter- measures business development Jack Pledger says the idea is too risky, and instead has proposed that the army drop ATIRCM and buy Northrop Grumman's Directional Infrared Countermeasures (DIRCM) unit, which already uses the multiband laser and is deployed on US special operations Sikorsky MH-53 Pave Lows. Ager says Northrop Grumman failed to honour the army's request by refusing to allow BAE Systems access to the multiband laser technology. He says the army had already rejected the DIRCM system in two previous com petitions in which the ATIRCM was selected. Pledger says that Northrop Grumman DIRCM- equipped helicopters can be delivered to the army within four to six months of a signed contract. Ager says BAE Systems is able to deploy ATIRCM at the same rate, or even faster, than the army's stated sched ule, which has not been publicly released. Northrop Grumman's proposal to the army, he says, is disrupting the pace of ATIRCM deliveries to helicopters in conflict areas. A potential complication for Northrop Grumman, says Ager, would be the need to integrate DIRCM with the BAE common missile warning system (CMWS) now being installed on many army helicopters. Pledger says the CMWS integration would have to be studied if the army were to transfer the jammer pro gramme to DIRCM. 4 2-8 MARCH 2004 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL www.flightinternational.com
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