By Emelie Rutherford
The Air Force has a “total service commitment” to buying a replacement for the aging UH-1N Huey helicopters, a senior official said.
Plans for this successor Common Vertical Lift Support Platform (CVLSP) chopper effort will be more clear to the public after the Pentagon’s fiscal year 2011 budget request is unveiled Feb. 1, Maj. Gen. C. Donald Alston, assistant chief of staff for strategic deterrent and nuclear integration at Air Force headquarters, said last week. Hueys were manufactured by Bell Helicopter Textron [TXT].
Air Force Material Command has sent notice to industry that it wants to buy at least 16 commercially available aircraft for the CVLSP effort no later than the end of FY ’17, Lt. Gen. Frank Klotz, commander of Air Force Global Strike Command, said in written testimony to the House Armed Services Strategic Forces subcommittee.
“We’re making progress with this,” Alston told reporters Jan. 21 after a hearing of the panel. Regarding “the need and the requirement to have (the CVLSPs)…we’ve got total service commitment to do that….The requirement is widely recognized, (Joint Requirements Oversight Council) JROC-validated, all good….I think there will be a little bit of clarity that will come out in the next few weeks.”
For the CVLSP, the Air Force is considering an incremental acquisition approach. Air Force Material Command issued a sources-sought synopsis/capability request for information “to obtain market insight into potential solutions and sources capable” of providing at least the 16 aircraft before the end of FY ’11, Klotz wrote.
Klotz’s command is assuming lead-command responsibilities for the aging UH-1N, which supports field operations and security at all three missile bases. While the Huey is considered “serviceable,” its “ability to meet post 9/11 security requirements is constrained by cargo capacity, range and speed,” Klotz wrote.
Alston said the UH-1Ns purchased in the 1970s “are doing yeoman’s work,” but they no longer meet current requirements. The Huey’s principal mission in ICBM base security, and it performs some domestic search-and-rescue and airlift functions.
The Air Force could ultimately buy up to 93 CVLPs. The service is seeking a helicopter with robust survivability in combat situations, according to a Dec. 17 presolicitation notice. It must be: armored against small arms fire; equipped with electro-optical and infrared sensors, as well as infrared countermeasures; night-vision-goggle ready; equipped with secure satellite communications as well as nonsecure line-of- sight communications links; and armed with sufficient firepower to make it capable of suppressing a “grouped eight-man enemy element in the open,” the notice says (Defense Daily, Jan. 6).
The Army, meanwhile, is replacing its Huey fleet with 345 UH-72 Lakotas, built by EADS, in a multiyear contract worth approximately $3 billion.