The Navy is scheduled to perform a technical evaluation next year of Boeing‘s [BA] A160T Hummingbird, an unmanned cargo helicopter designed to ferry supplies to troops, and will decide whether to deploy the system to theater after the testing, Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) said recently.
“The Department of Navy is planning to do a technical evaluation of Boeing’s A-160 in spring 2012 in Yuma, Ariz.,” spokeswoman Jamie Cosgrove said. “NAVAIR’s test and evaluation teams will assess technical and operational characteristics of the system.”
The Hummingbird is competing with Lockheed Martin’s K-MAX unmanned helicopter, which completed five days of a Quick Reaction Assessment (QRA) in August, setting it up for deployment to Afghanistan in November. Cosgrove said the Navy will determine the “best use” of the Hummingbird once next year’s evaluation is complete.
The Navy awarded dueling development contracts to Lockheed Martin and Boeing in December to create an unmanned airlift capability in response to an urgent requirements request by Marines in Afghanistan. The unmanned, autonomous flying helicopters are intended to reduce risks, such as ambushes or improvised explosive devices (IEDs), associated with moving supplies in ground convoys.
The president of Boeing Military Aircraft, Chris Chadwick, said in an interview recently that the Hummingbird is “fairly close” to being ready for deployment.
“We’ll have to see how it plays out,” he said. “I think it would be ready to deploy should the customer want to do that.”
Chadwick said he would like to see the Hummingbird move along faster, but was confident the system has greater capability than its competitor, noting it has set a record for endurance.
“Are we behind? I would always like to go faster,” he said, adding that moving from prototype to production is always a challenge.
“I wouldn’t say there’s any one technology area that is causing us issues,” he said. “It’s just moving from prototype to the development to the production phase and that’s where we’re at right now.”
Boeing inherited Hummngbird when it acquired Frontier Systems in 2004. Lockheed Martin is the lead contractor for K-MAX in a partnership with Kaman Aerospace [KAMN].