Boeing [BA] is gearing up for the deployment of its A-160T Hummingbird to Afghanistan this summer under an Army intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance (ISR) program, even as the unmanned helicopter was recently terminated from a Navy and Marine Corps cargo program.
Navy Capt. Patrick Smith, program manager for multi-mission tactical unmanned systems at Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR), confirmed to Defense Daily during the Navy League’s Sea Air Space Exposition this week that the A-160T had been terminated from the Marine Corps Cargo UAS program.
Cargo UAS is a technology demonstration program to meet an urgent requirement for ferrying supplies to Marines through the air to offset the risks associated with ground convoys. Smith said his office was working through the final details to close out the contract with Boeing following the successful deployment of the K-MAX helicopter furnished by Lockheed Martin [LMT].
K-MAX deployed in November and began operations the following month. It is scheduled to stay until June and resupply flights so far have drawn praise from the senior levels of the Marine Corps.
Smith said the A-160T assets under Cargo UAS were being transferred to Special Operations Command, which has also supported the Hummingbird. Smith said NAVAIR was examining the “lessons learned” from the A-160T, but added there were “some great capabilities in that aircraft and what it can do.”
The A-160T hit a snag in the Marine Corps program when Boeing encountered technical problems moving it from the prototype and development phase into production, prompting NAVAIR to issue a stop work order in December before saying in February it would not deploy to Afghanistan as had been planned (Defense Daily, Feb. 16, 2012).
“We moved outside the window that they had established for that cargo demonstration,” Rick Lemaster, Boeing’s director for unmanned airborne systems, told Defense Daily at Sea Air Space. He said candidly that Boeing had issues maturing the aircraft’s configuration as it went toward production, and there were some electrical system problems that have since been redesigned and fixed.
Smith said K-MAX was successful largely because it was a an airframe already in production by Lockheed Martin’s partner, Kaman Aerospace [KAMN], and only required modifications for the unmanned cargo role.
“When you look at the two (K-MAX and A-160T), you’re talking about a system (K-MAX) that was developed and in production,” Smith said. “It was a production aircraft that was modified.”
Now out of the Cargo UAS demonstration, Boeing executives are looking to the Army’s ISR program. Lemaster said that three A-160Ts will be deployed to Afghanistan for up to one year this summer, following flights in the interim at Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona.
Boeing is confident the A-160T has a future with the Navy if the service resumes its Medium Range Multi-Mission UAS (MRMUAS), which was removed from the five-year defense plan earlier this year. MRMUAS is a broader program that includes ISR as well as cargo.
The A-160T “is a multi-mission aircraft and has technological advantages over other rotorcraft,” said Debbie Rub, Boeing’s vice president and general manager for missiles and unmanned airborne systems.