By Ann Roosevelt

FORT WORTH, Texas—EADS North America yesterday announced that with team members American Eurocopter and Lockheed Martin [LMT] it will build on its successful UH-72A Lakota helicopter and fund and develop three Armed Aerial Scout (AAS) 72X technology aircraft.

At the Army Aviation Association of America annual conference here, EADS NA CEO Sean O’Keefe said such a move is not the norm for a company of this size–EADS is the largest aerospace company in the world.

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“This is unusual–the entrepreneurial spirit of a company this size,” he said. At the same time, EADS takes such steps in its wide range of areas.

The technology demonstrators would be built on the UH-72A Lakota, which in March delivered its 100th aircraft to the Army.

The technology demonstrators would be used to fulfill the Army’s armed aerial scout helicopter requirements that remain unfilled in the wake of two terminated programs: the Bell Helicopter Textron [TXT]-Boeing [BA] RAH-66 Comanche helicopter and Bell’s Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter (ARH). Comanche was killed because it was considered a Cold War relic and ARH was a casualty of cost and scheduling problems.

The requirement still remains to fulfill an armed aerial scout role able to cope with evolving mission scenarios now and in future conflicts. Such a new helicopter would also allow the retirement of the aging OH-58 Kiowa Warriors, which have been receiving performance upgrades over the past few years.

Operational later this year, the first AAS-72X will be used for mission equipment and weapon system integration, performance testing and survivability validations.

O’Keefe said the approach is low-risk, combining mature, developed technologies with the current production Lakota.

Taking the Lakota base aircraft and moving to an armed scout role is no leap of faith.

“This is the next logical step,” said David Haines, vice president of Rotorcraft programs, EADs NA. The Lakota is a “very capable, technologically advanced” aircraft.

Team partner American Eurocopter will assemble the AAS-72X in Columbus, Miss., where Lakotas are currently being built.

Lockheed Martin will supply and integrate the mission equipment package. It has also created a high-fidelity systems integration lab for the mission equipment package at is Orlando, Fla., facility.

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