The Army has officially received and sent to test and evaluation its first F model OH-58 Kiowa Warrior (KW) helicopter, service officials said.
“This is a major milestone in the lifespan of the Kiowa Warrior fleet,” said Col. Robert Grigsby, project manager for the Armed Scout Helicopter Project Management Office (ASH PMO) during a recent briefing at the Association of the United States Army.
The engineering and manufacturing development demonstrator #1 (EMDD) is expected to take its first flight in April, he said.
The OH-58F EMDD is the result of a cockpit and sensor upgrade program (CASUP) that converts an existing Bell Helicopter [TXT]-produced OH-58D platform to the new configuration. The OH-58D KW was developed in the late 1980’s and fielded in 1990, and has not had a comprehensive mission equipment package (MEP) update or depot-level modernization since then.
CASUP is “designed to address obsolescence with the platform and to address capability gaps we have identified in recent years in Afghanistan and Iraq,” Grigsby said. Also, CASUP is the only Research, Development, Test and Evaluation (RDT&E) Program of Record (POR) for the OH-58D fleet.
Meanwhile, the OH-58D flies with a more than 20-year-old MEP package while maintaining the highest operational tempo (OPTEMPO) of any Army aviation asset in theater, Grigsby said. The KW has a monthly in-theater OPTEMPO average of 80 hours per airframe, a “significant amount of flight time.”
At the same time, “operational readiness met and exceeded (Department of the Army) DA standards,” he said.
The fleet now stands at about 329 aircraft, down from the service-authorized 368, due to attrition from combat loss and accident, Grigsby said.
Wartime replacement aircraft are being built, Lt. Col. Mathew Hannah, OH-58F product manager, said, but they’re always behind because there is about a “5.2 aircraft per year attrition,” and additional aircraft are needed. Since June, two wartime replacement aircraft have been delivered, with plans for delivering one aircraft per month. Forty-two aircraft are funded in a program that completes in 2015, which brings the fleet up to the 368-authorized fleet.
The OH-58F/CASUP provides the most current technology, improves safety and is fundamental to ensuring the KW is operational through fiscal year 2032, aviation officials said.
CASUP also is the Army’s response to the bumpy path forward on an armed aerial scout aircraft, first addressed by the 2004 termination of the Boeing [BA]–Sikorsky [UTX] RAH-66 Comanche helicopter, then the 2008 termination of the Bell Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter (ARH). The service has chosen to reinvest in the Kiowa Warrior while it determines the path forward.
Right now, the service is assessing data from Voluntary Flight Demonstrations of potential Armed Aerial Scout helicopters. The Army will decide, likely in November, the way ahead for a scout reconnaissance fleet, Grigsby said.
Hannah said users are excited about the helicopter’s revival, and its ability to fill gaps, such as to find, identify, locate and report on the adversary.
For example, the iconic KW mast-mounted sensor is gone in the F model. It is replaced by a Common Sensor Payload below the nose, providing a much greater range to find and identify the enemy.
Chief Warrant Officer 4 Mark Herman, Army Training and Doctrine Capabilities Management Office Reconnaissance/Attack, Ft. Rucker, Ala., said moving the sensor payload, “more than anything, streamlines the ability to conduct our mission.”
With a greater sensor range, testing will help refine how the helicopter uses the new capability and what refinements of tactics, techniques and procedures, if any, are needed, Herman said.
Another upgrade is adding a third display screen in the cockpit. Additionally, the helicopter weighed in at 53 pounds less than estimated, primarily from changes in wiring, so aviators can stay on station longer by having more fuel, or could carry more ammunition.
The F model is a teaming effort between the government and industry Hannah said, to include Bell Helicopter, Honeywell [HON], Raytheon [RTN] and Corpus Christi Army Depot where low-rate initial production will be done.
The Milestone C acquisition review is expected in the second quarter of 2015, with a production decision in April of 2015, allowing a first unit equipped in 2016, Hannah said.
The Army is the system integrator for the aircraft, which saves about $37 million in development costs, and will save about $551 million in production, officials said.
Brad Welch, from the Prototype Integration Facility (PIF) at the Aviation and Missile Research Development and Engineering Center (AMRDEC) said PIF did the OH-58F remanufacturing and development work. PIF continues working to put together instructions on how to build the OH-58F when production moves to Corpus Christi Army Depot.