Boeing [BA] today celebrates the 100th CH-47F Chinook helicopter built at the company’s Ridley Township, Pa., facility.
“This is an incredible milestone,” said Leanne Caret, Boeing vice president, H-47 programs. “More than 2,000 Boeing employees work on the Chinook program, and they all share in this exceptional accomplishment with the rest of the company and our partners, suppliers and customers. We are dedicated to delivering aircraft with advanced capability and the utmost quality to meet warfighters’ urgent needs.”
Following delivery to the Army in August, the 100th Chinook will be fielded by the next unit equipped with the new aircraft.
Since completing the first production model CH-47F Chinook in August 2006, Boeing has trained and equipped six U.S. Army units and is in the process of equipping the seventh.
The helicopter was certified combat ready in 2007 (Defense Daily, April 14, 2009).
Four units have completed deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, where the helicopter logged nearly 50,000 flight hours and maintained an operational readiness rate of over 80 percent conducting air assault, transport and support operations.
“The CH-47F is proving its exceptional capabilities every day in combat operations,” said Army Col. Bob Marion, project manager for Cargo Helicopters. “The technological advantages and improvements in the CH-47F are powerful combat multipliers that save soldiers’ lives and support overall contingency operations in theater. I am extremely proud of our Cargo Team.”
The CH-47F features a newly designed, modernized airframe, the Rockwell Collins [COL] Common Avionics Architecture System (CAAS) cockpit and BAE Systems‘ Digital Automatic Flight Control System (DAFCS). The CAAS greatly improves aircrew situational awareness, and DAFCS provides dramatically improved flight-control capabilities through the entire flight envelope, significantly improved performance, and safety in the harshest of environments.
CAAS also incorporates an advanced digital map display and a data transfer system that allows storing of preflight and mission data. Improved survivability features include the Common Missile Warning and Improved Countermeasure Dispenser systems.
The F model is powered by two 4,733-horsepower Honeywell [HON] engines, the new CH-47F can reach speeds greater than 175 mph and transport more than 21,000 pounds. The CH-47F, with the Robertson Aviation Extended Range Fuel System, has a mission radius of more than 400 nautical miles.
To further meet the needs of Chinook customers around the world, Boeing is implementing a $130 million renovation that will enable the Ridley Township factory to gradually increase production levels from the current four aircraft per month to a new rate of six aircraft per month in 2012.
In August 2008, Boeing received a five-year $4.3 billion Army contract for 181 CH-47F Chinooks and 10 more of the helicopters under fiscal year 2008 supplemental funding (Defense Daily, Aug. 27, 2008). Options under the multi-year contract would provide for another 24 aircraft.
The move to a multi-year procurement came from the FY ’08 National Defense Authorization Act, (Defense Daily, April 8, Dec. 10). Using a multiyear contract was, at the time, expected to save the Army about $500 million.