By Ann Roosevelt
The Army and the Defense Department remain committed to the requirement for a manned Armed Scout Helicopter (ASH), top service aviation officials told the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) Air Land Forces panel.
The manned ASH capability requirement exists, as does the need to bring the rotorcraft to soldiers in a “responsible and timely manner,” Brig. Gen. Walter Davis, director of Army Aviation in the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, G-3/5/7, and Brig. Gen. William Crosby, Program Executive Officer Aviation, said yesterday in prepared testimony before the HASC panel.
Air and Land Forces panel Chairman Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii), said “we know very little” about the fiscal year 2010 Army aviation budget, but added as the hearing began that “the annual request for Army aviation accounts has increased by nearly 90 percent over the past five years.”
The panel and the full HASC have supported those requests except for the Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter (ARH). “We registered our concerns with ARH beginning three years ago,” Abercrombie said, adding the program was canceled “in part, for the reasons we had cited.”
Members acknowledged the lack of a fiscal year 2010 budget complicated discussion. Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.), the ranking panel member, said the witnesses were prohibited from discussing anything about the pending budget request. However, it was possible to look at “conditions and performance of our current aircraft programs,” he said.
As a bridging strategy, Army Secretary Pete Geren approved a strategy to keep funds from the canceled ARH within Army Aviation and redistribute them to three primary efforts:
- Sustaining and improving the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior;
- Modernizing the Army National Guard AH-64A Apache Helicopter fleet; and conducting a competition for, and,
- Pprocuring the capabilities associated with the future ASH.
“The Vice Chief of Staff of the Army and the Army Acquisition Executive jointly signed a Memorandum for the Record codifying this strategy,” the officers wrote.
The ARH, being developed by Bell Helicopter Textron [TXT], was canceled for cost and schedule problems on Oct. 16. The Army wanted 512 helicopters that would be modifications to an existing rotorcraft, with the integration of existing subsystems.
The OH-58D, also produced by Bell, is undergoing assorted changes to keep it safe and reliable, as it is one of the oldest airframes in the service. On April 1, Bell announced it received an Army contract to modify an additional 27 OH-58D helicopters under the Kiowa Warrior Safety Enhancement Program (SEP) (Defense Daily, April 1).
In support of the potential ASH procurement, the Army is conducting a “bottom up review” of the armed reconnaissance capability requirement, Davis and Crosby said in prepared remarks. This will include “a thorough assessment of the specific requirements identified for the initial ARH program, as well as initiating a formal ‘Analysis of Alternatives.’
The analysis will look at all the options from the use of unmanned aerial vehicles, to a manned-unmanned aircraft mix, to procuring a new, manned platform.
Because it takes time to do the assessments, “the Army is currently evaluating what additional enhancements and life extension work, if any, will be required to continue to safely sustain the Kiowa Warrior Fleet until a replacement is procured,” the testimony said.
Additionally, the Army Audit Agency has completed an official after-action review to identify lessons learned from the termination of the ARH program. The results are being evaluated for assimilation into Army acquisition programs and for use in developing an acquisition strategy to meet the ARH program.