By Ann Roosevelt
Boeing [BA] has responded with information on the AH-6 Phoenix and a Scout-optimized AH-64 Apache helicopters to the Army’s sources sought to see if industry had the capability to meet requirements for a new Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter (ARH), according to a company official.
“Boeing could provide two candidates for the scout mission with the ability to operate at the temperatures and altitudes in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere in the world, and have the staying power, Mike Burke, Boeing director of Army Rotorcraft Business Development, said yesterday at a luncheon in Virginia. “Both Apache and AH-6 would have two hours and 40 minutes endurance and 20 minutes reserve with combat loads at 6,000 feet at 95 degree days.”
The Army’s Nov. 7 notice said, “Specifically, the Army may procure up to 512 new Armed Reconnaissance Helicopters with the capability to perform a Hover Out of Ground Effect (HOGE) at 6,000 ft/95 degrees Fahrenheit and operate in an Armed Reconnaissance configuration with required range and endurance.”
Burke said, “The reason for that is recently the new Army Vice Chief of Staff [Gen. Pete Chiarelli] indicated that we needed a helicopter like that that could operate at the altitudes that we have in Afghanistan, could operate at those temperatures they have in Afghanistan, that could operate along with the Apache and the UH-60 in those kinds of operations.”
Boeing has responded to the sources sought, but there is as yet no request for proposals (RFP) from the service. It first must complete its capability requirements and scrub them through the Joint Requirements Oversight Committee, expected in February or March, before an RFP is released.
Dave Palm, director of Rotorcraft Systems Business Development, said, “It’s Boeing’s position we’re keeping our options open for a proposal based on what the Army’s requirements are. We’re looking at a number of things” beyond the two helicopters being described.
Boeing’s AH-6 Phoenix is based on the basic AH-6 airframe except it has a 15-inch plug in the airframe, providing a little more space inside the cabin, Burke said.
“When they’re operating in flights and one of them goes down or gets shot down, it’s nice to have another aircraft come in and pick up the crew,” Burke said. “That gives the ability for that aircraft to have space in the back and also space for additional ammunition and water and other critical supplies.”
The company also redesigned the front of the aircraft, using the commercial “pointy nose.”
“What that enables us to do is put a number of the boxes, avionics boxes in the front and also gives us a little more living space in the cockpit and gives you the ability to redesign the cockpit,” he said.
“We intend to redesign this cockpit patterned after the same architecture we’re using with the Apache Block III,” he said. “The advantage of that is you’ve got the same attack/reconnaissance software and most of the hardware are common with the Apache.” The advantage is that “about 75 percent of the software that we would need for this AH-6 can be directly ported from the Block III Apache for this aircraft,” he said.
“In other words, we’ll have a scout helicopter.” The Phoenix would have the ability to do Level II, III and IV UAV control. Pilots would have the ability to talk on all the waveforms the Army is fielding with its new series of radios, soldier radio waveform, wideband networking waveform, the tactical common data link waveform and then the Air Force’s TTNT waveform.
“Then you have a reconnaissance aircraft that has the ability to acquire information and then pass that information off to ground users, air users and to other aircraft,” Burke said.
In addition to that, a new rotor blade will be designed, somewhat patterned after the Block III Apache composite rotor blade. Such a rotor blade would give the aircraft a great deal of capability and maneuverability and also take a lot of the flight load off the pilots they now have when operating in high weight conditions, he said.
“What that will enable this aircraft to do will be able to operate at 6,000 feet, hover out of ground effect with full mission load and also gives it a dash speed,” Burke said. “We predict the dash speed is going to be very close to 130-132 knots, which is about the dash speed of an Apache at that altitude and also be able to keep up with UH-60 at that altitude.”
Additionally, an improved tail rotor will offer about 24 percent more tail rotor authority over the current AH-6 being flown. The aircraft would also have all the weapon systems Boeing has already integrated into the aircraft over a number of years and the Army’s new common sensor.
The sources sought notice also wanted the scout helicopter to be able to use strategic lift to get to theater, wanting to know if industry had the capability to put at least seven aircraft in a C-17 and then how long it would take to get the aircraft off and fight them.
Burke said two of the Phoenix aircraft could be loaded on a C-130, and 10 of them could be put on a C-17. “So you can get an armed reconnaissance company in a C-17.”
Boeing could build the AH-6 Phoenix aircraft in Mesa, Ariz., where Apache helicopters are built. Some version of this aircraft will be shown at the May Army Aviation Association of America conference in Nashville, Tenn.
Boeing’s second potential option is a scout-optimized Apache helicopter, “what we call Apache light,” Burke said. “It’s a little bit bigger and has twin engines.”
The Army Oct. 16 terminated the existing ARH contract with Bell Helicopter Textron [TXT] after cost overruns (Defense Daily, Oct. 20). Boeing had lost the 2005 program competition to Bell.
The ARH program is to replace the Bell Kiowa Warrior, which has the oldest airframe in the Army and the highest operational tempo in the inventory.
Scouts are the first ones in to contact and then they maintain security while the battle is gong on and then they’re usually the last to leave, Burke said. “The Army needs a new scout.”