By B.C. Kessner
The fast paced, on time, and on budget success of the UH-72A Lakota Light Utility Helicopter (LUH) program has boosted Army aviation capabilities in the United States as well as downrange in Afghanistan and Iraq, according to an Army official.
“We currently don’t have enough Black Hawks,” Col. Neil Thurgood, Army utility helicopters project manager, told reporters last week. “As we deliver some of our Lakotas to Black Hawk units, we can take those Black Hawks and put them back into units that are going into the fight–so far we’ve done that with 23 Black Hawks,” he added.
Thurgood, and John Burke, vice president at Lakota-manufacturer European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co. (EADS) North America, presented a LUH program update Oct. 26 at the Association of the United States Army Annual symposium in Washington, D.C.
The program that began in 2006, with production and deliveries starting in 2007, has already fielded 133 Lakotas to Army and Army National Guard units, Thurgood said. “The pace of this program is incredibly fast and exactly what the Army wanted…it’s providing our homeland defense assets…exactly the platform they need to be successful.”
Last week, EADS said the Army’s fleet of Lakotas surpassed the 40,000-flight hour milestone. The aircraft are operated by active duty Army and Army National Guard units in missions that include medical evacuation (MEDEVAC), search and rescue, drug interdiction, VIP transport and general aviation support.
Five H-72A versions of the Lakotas delivered to the Navy have logged an additional 600 hours at the Naval Test Pilot School at Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Md. These helicopters are used for training test pilots from the U.S. military and allied countries.
There are five Army Lakota variants, including one outfitted with traditional commercial MEDEVAC life-support systems, Thurgood said. “The great thing about that is that we can give that kit to other National Guard units, then that is an asset that state governors can use…and once again, you are saving a Black Hawk to go to the fight where you can do a great job with a Lakota.”
Other Army versions include one for VIP transport, two for training support, and a Security and Support (S&S) package for Army National Guard S&S Battalions.
Last month, the Army awarded the EADS North America a $67 million contract for the supply of Lakota S&S mission equipment packages (Defense Daily, Oct. 8).
“We have done everything possible to keep the Lakotas completely FAA compliant,” Burke said. The entire S&S package is also FCC complaint and provides homeland security network connectivity with local law enforcement and first responders, something that military aircraft, with all their robust communications capability, lacked in the past when responding to major national incidents, such as Hurricane Katrina, he added.
“The Army was able to take advantage of the efficiencies and economies of buying into a commercially available product,” Burke said. Utilization of parts and logistics supply chains has been critical to the program’s foundation, as has been the adherence to FAA standards that keeps the huge commercial marketplace open to Lakota, he added.
The Army plans to acquire a total of 345 UH-72As through 2015. The Lakotas are built at the EADS American Eurocopter facility in Columbus, Miss., where there is a dedicated assembly line for the LUH at its rotary-wing center of excellence adjacent to the Golden Triangle Regional Airport.
The majority of UH-72As delivered to date are based at locations from coast to coast in the United States. Other deployments have placed Lakotas with the National Guard in Puerto Rico, at the Army’s Joint Multinational Readiness Center (JMRC) in Germany, and on the Pacific Ocean’s Kwajalein Atoll in support of the Army’s Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site. The fleet of Lakotas has consistently achieved an operational readiness rate greater than 90 percent, EADS said.
“The Lakota is tied to the UH-60 program,” Thurgood said. “So it’s very important to us that EADS continues to be successful producing Lakotas so that we can take those Black Hawks and put them into combat action in Afghanistan, Iraq, and all the other places that our soldiers are flying.”