Sierra Nevada Corp. (SNC) is continuing its work to build and field degraded visual environment (DVE) systems for DoD helicopters, including the U.S. Air Force HH-60 combat search and rescue (CSAR) fleet by Lockheed Martin
[LMT] and the Boeing [BA] MH-47 and Lockheed Martin MH-60 for U.S. Special Operations Command’s (SOCOM) 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment.
Last April, SNC won an $88 million contract for the Degraded Visual Environment Pilotage System (DVEPS) that is to fuse information from aircraft sensors and digital terrain elevation data to display real-time reference points, obstacles, and landing zone information to the air crews. The contract award boosts the total possible award to a ceiling of $110 million, according to DoD.
SOCOM has budgeted about $13 million per year for DVEPS through fiscal 2025.
DVEPS “will provide MH-47 and MH-60 aircrews with visual cues for obstacle avoidance and aircraft control during all phases of flight and significantly increase crew and passenger survivability in DVE,” SOCOM said in the DoD fiscal 2021 budget request. “The AAQ-250 brownout camera (a sub-component of the DVE Pilotage System) is an interim capability to provide the user with enhanced situational awareness ahead of the full DVE system. Procured brownout cameras will be provided as government furnished equipment to the vendor once production begins on DVE Pilotage Systems.”
As DVEPS fielding moves forward on the MH-60, MH-47, and HH-60, the House Appropriations Committee is calling upon the U.S. Army to submit a DVEPS strategy for the service’s marquee Future Vertical Lift program.
“The committee is concerned that the Army has not developed a comprehensive strategy to transition DVEPS to a Degraded Visual Environment program of record for enduring future vertical lift platforms,” according to the House Appropriations Committee’s report on the committee’s version of the fiscal 2021 defense funding bill.
“Operational testing of DVEPS has demonstrated increased situational awareness of hazards during all phases of flight, a key enabler for aircraft to fly in multi-domain operations using tactics, techniques, and procedures to counter anti-access, area denial threats,” the report said. “The committee directs the secretary of the Army to submit a report to the congressional defense committees not later than 120 days after the enactment of this act which outlines DVEPS role in future vertical lift platforms.”
Last month, SNC said that it would begin full-rate DVEPS production at the company’s facility in Sparks, Nev.
Greg Cox, executive vice president for SNC’s electronic and information systems business, said in a statement that DVEPS “offers a leap-ahead capability to enhanced situational awareness today and provides the foundation for an incremental growth path to a much greater capability such as pilotage or supervised autonomy, fully relevant for future vertical lift aircraft.”
Last year, SNC said that DVE has factored into 30 percent of Army helicopter mishaps.