H-60 Sikorsky/LM Blackhawk 2018

Military aircraft - Post cold war aircraft, including for example B-2, Gripen, F-18E/F Super Hornet, Rafale, and Typhoon.
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by neptune » 21 Feb 2018, 20:46

https://www.flightglobal.com/news/artic ... 0w-446062/

Sikorsky begins final assembly of first HH-60W

21 February, 2018
BY: Stephen Trimble

Washington DC
Sikorsky has introduced the first HH-60W combat rescue helicopter (CRH) into final assembly ahead of a scheduled first flight by the end of this year. The derivative of the UH-60M is the first of a planned 112-aircraft production program worth $8.12 billion to replace the aging fleet charged with rescuing downed US Air Force pilots. The start of final assembly means the HH-60W is two months ahead of schedule in manufacturing, says Tim Healy, director of Sikorsky Air Force Programs. The program remains ahead of schedule despite repeated concerns from government auditors that the air force is ignoring “best practices” to rush the long-awaited HH-60G replacement into service. The Air Force launched the CRH program in 2014 as a minor derivative of an existing platform only after several attempts to buy a larger helicopter failed to overcome a series of legal challenges by losing bidders. Instead of buying a much larger platform for the mission, the Air Force is modifying the UH-60M with the tactical mission kit (TMK), which integrates new sensors, radar and multiple self-defense systems. Sikorsky’s workers also will install a new fuel system in final assembly to raises internal fuel to 660gal, or twice the internal fuel tank capacity of a UH-60M. Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin-owned company, plans to build nine engineering and manufacturing development aircraft, along with 103 HH-60Ws for the Air Force program.
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by neptune » 21 Feb 2018, 21:03

http://aviationweek.com/defense/sierra- ... sky-s-skin

Is Sierra Nevada's ‘Force Hawk’ Getting Under Sikorsky’s Skin?

Feb 20, 2018
James Drew

Sikorsky’s pre-award protest over the U.S. Air Force’s UH-1N Replacement competition is being interpreted by some as the Lockheed Martin-owned company “freaking out” about Sierra Nevada Corp.’s competing “Force Hawk” proposal. The $4.6 billion helicopter program, which includes development and procurement costs, would replace the service’s 63 vintage Bell UH-1N Hueys with up to 84 “modern helicopters.” The contenders are the Boeing MH-139, Sikorsky HH-60U and SNC Force Hawk. Sikorsky’s Black Hawk had always been the one to beat, but the company’s offer of the HH-60U, a UH-60M derivative the Air Force already flies, appears to have hit some snags. .“They’re freaking out about the [Force Hawk] proposal,” an industry source says. “They did not take it seriously until the Air Force said all three bids were accepted.”

Sierra Nevada had something of a “coming out party” in September 2017 at the Air Force Association’s national convention, where it first publicly revealed the Force Hawk bid. The proposal caught Sikorsky off guard, pitting a refurbished Black Hawk against a brand-new model. If selected, SNC would buy former-Army UH-60A Black Hawks that have been put through the Alpha-to-Lima overhaul and conversion at the Corpus Christi Army Depot in Texas. Those aircraft would then be further upgraded and undergo missionization in Huntsville, Alabama, for delivery to the Air Force. The company claims these would be “zero-time, unlimited life cycle airframes” equipped with GE Aviation T700-701D turboshaft engines and Garmin G5000H integrated flight deck. The source says Sikorsky has unsuccessfully tried to claim that the SNC bid is not compliant because the company does not have an active helicopter production line, as required. But the Corpus Christi Army Depot churns out up to 100 rebuilt Black Hawks annually. The source claims the government would have far greater access to the intellectual property and technical data through the Force Hawk plan than it would if it selects the HH-60U. The source says most of the intellectual property and technical data is already “owned and paid for” by the government, since the A-to-L conversion is a government program. SNC would essentially be buying aircraft from the Army to sell back to the Air Force with upgrades and mission modifications in between. SNC has apparently also come to an agreement with Garmin on government access to technical data for the G5000H avionics suite.

The Air Force has previously investigated buying A-to-L Black Hawks and then upgrading them for the Huey mission. In fact, this approach was recommended in a Rand Corp. report commissioned by the Air Force in the wake of the failed Common Vertical Lift Support Platform program, an earlier attempt to replace the UH-1N fleet. In response to market research and after much lobbying by industry and congressional lawmakers, the Air Force opted instead for a competitive acquisition strategy under which the Black Hawk was expected to be a shoo-in. Boeing’s MH-139 was a surprise entrant, and SNC revived the A-to-L concept in an effort to expand its aircraft integration business. Northrop Grumman decided not to compete the UH-60V for undeclared reasons, probably service-life limitations. The source says the Force Hawk proposal “upset the apple cart” in what was meant to be a straight shootout between the HH-60U and MH-139. The Force Hawk proposal was not taken seriously at first, but it is now, having recently received its third round of evaluation notices. The source says a secondhand Black Hawk is already less expensive than a new HH-60U........Despite not offering a brand-new aircraft, the source says SNC’s Force Hawk has proven to be “a creative and affordable way to give the Air Force what it wants,” while allowing open competition and the introduction of third-party components throughout the anticipated 30-year life cycle.

Sikorsky has not confirmed whether it will pull the HH-60U from contention if the GAO protest is unsuccessful, since it will wait for the outcome before deciding its next move. The GAO has until March 23 to support or reject Sikorsky’s protest. Although the HH-60U costs more than an upgraded L-model, Sikorsky says a new aircraft is the best path forward for the “no-fail” intercontinental ballistic missile security and continuity of government missions the UH-1N currently performs. The UH-1N has long been deemed by the Air Force as unfit for the role. Sikorsky says the HH-60U is “nearly identical” to the Army’s M-model and would be built on the same assembly line in Connecticut. Mission kits would be installed in Owego, New York. The unique U-model modifications come at the tail end of the production process. “There is no major development needed on this aircraft,” the company says.

The source says the Huey Replacement must provide armed security and logistical support to the Air Force’s strategic missile wings and shuttle government officials around Washington, among other odd jobs, not “dodge fire” in a conflict zone, like the M-model and W-models are designed to do. “The irony is, an L-model is lighter and has better range than an M-model and has 85% commonality in parts,” the source says. “They just have to get over this ‘used-aircraft’ thing.”
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by neptune » 22 Feb 2018, 18:42

https://www.defensenews.com/global/asia ... licopters/

Structural issues plague US Pave Hawk HH-60G helicopters

By: Valerie Insinna
21Feb18

KADENA AIR BASE, Japan —
The HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopter is showing its age. Specifically, at Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan, the aircraft are experiencing structural cracks and frequent maintenance issues that hamstring the fleet. But that doesn’t stop the airmen of 33rd Rescue Squadron from doing their jobs, which regularly includes deploying from Japan to the Middle East — including to aid casualty evacuation operations in Afghanistan or conduct combat rescue missions in Iraq — or to other regions worldwide. While other squadrons at Kadena prepare for the possibility of war, the members of the 33rd frequently find themselves in it. “Half of our unit is actually deployed right now. About half of them in Afghanistan” Capt. Chris Allen, an HH-60G pilot and flight commander, said in a Feb. 13 interview. “Our guys have been in and out of Afghanistan for years now,” he said. “Last year I came back from AFRICOM [U.S. Africa Command].”

The squadron operates nine HH-60Gs, a variant of the ubiquitous Black Hawk sold by Sikorsky, which is now owned by Lockheed Martin. At any given time, one of those aircraft is usually going through depot or phased maintenance, Allen said. The rest of the squadron is split into two unit type codes, or UTC, one of which is always ready to deploy from Kadena or temporarily operating somewhere around the globe. Through all of this, the Pave Hawk is advancing in age. The oldest of the 33rd’s HH-60Gs were manufactured in the late 1980s. All of them are either approaching their 7,000-hour lifespan or have exceeded it, Allen said. The result is an overworked fleet of aircraft that is literally coming apart at the seams. “Over the past few years, we’ve started to see airframe structural cracks,” Allen said. “Usually what that entails is we find it, it goes to maintenance, maintenance sends back to their headquarters for approval to basically stiffen that area, put in bracing and all that, and then it comes back to us. And then we see the crack either go somewhere else or progress, or whatever. So that’s something we’re constantly fighting these days.” However, that doesn’t keep the squadron from putting the aircraft to work. The HH-60G is frequently flown with heavier payloads than it was designed to handle. And it operates in the Middle East, where the environment can come with higher altitudes and temperatures than the helicopter was designed to handle. All of those mission requirements increase the load of maintainers, Allen said. Even at home station, the squadron flies twice a day, about four days a week, with at least one complex training scenario — usually staged at nighttime. The scenario could involve picking up a wounded operator with a radio, with red forces deployed as aggressors. “For what they are, as old as they are, our maintenance guys have to work pretty hard. But they fly well once we get them up and going,” Allen said.

The Air Force plans to begin buying a new combat rescue helicopter, Lockheed Martin’s HH-60W, in fiscal 2019. The service’s newly released budget request includes the first procurement dollars, about $680 million for the first 10 low-rate initial production helicopters of a planned 112 aircraft acquisition. The combat rescue helicopter program appears to be proceeding at pace, but the competitions leading up to the selection of the HH-60W were famously troubled. Under the combat search and rescue-X, or CSAR-X, program, the Air Force in 2006 selected a variant of Boeing’s CH-47 Chinook helicopter but canceled the program after multiple protests. It then scaled back its requirements and restarted the HH-60G replacement effort as the combat rescue helicopter competition. The HH-60G’s current predicament illustrates why it is critical for the military to acquire and field new technologies in a timely manner. Pushing new procurement programs too far into the future can hinder a critical mission — a fact not lost on the airmen flying the Pave Hawk today. “CSAR-X happened, what is it, 10 years ago? We needed a new helicopter then,” Allen stressed, “because our birds are so old.” It will be “years, at least” until active-duty units like the 33rd start getting the new HH-60Ws, he added. Despite the structural issues plaguing the HH-60G inventory, Allen stressed safety comes first, especially in a training environment. When there seems to be an issue with one of the Pave Hawks, the crew will either hop to another helicopter or not fly that training mission. “We make a lot of decisions not to fly helicopters purely based on precaution. So it’s things like: Would we in a real life — if there’s someone actually floating out there we need to go pick up or a pilot just got shot down — would we fly that helicopter? Absolutely,” he said. “But a lot of times here, we make the conservative choice and say: ‘We’ll just give it back to maintenance and let them fix it.’ ”

Hot and heavy

Moving injured troops from the ground or sea into a helicopter to receive medical attention is a team effort. Typically, an HH-60G crew includes two pilots and two special mission aviators, who are responsible for flight engineer duties and operating the .50-caliber GAU-18 gun and GAU-2 minigun. It can also be augmented by two to three pararescue jumpers from the 31st Rescue Squadron, all of which are qualified combat medics. If a UTC stays at Kadena or is deployed to a place like Africa, it will likely be regulated to flying training missions to keep its skills sharp; or, very rarely, it will conduct an actual rescue mission of a downed pilot. That all changes when a Pave Hawk squadron is sent to a place like Afghanistan, where an HH-60G will always be operating nearby other aircraft carrying out combat missions. “If there’s a lot of activity, like a lot of dudes are getting shot or hit with [improvised explosive devices], our pace, our tempo rapidly increases. But it truly depends on where we’re at, and what we’re tasked to do because if we’re not tasked to do [casualty evacuation], then most likely, we’re not doing a whole lot [more] than flying training lines,” said Master Sgt. Joshua Reid, a special missions aviator.

Evacuating troops in a warzone requires quick thinking and cooperation with other U.S. assets in the air. The first task for the Pave Hawk crew is figuring out the precise location of the operator needing help, which could entail talking to his or her wingman, using data from surveillance aircraft like the MQ-9 Reaper, or contacting him or her directly using radios. Then, the HH-60G crew will call in other aircraft, which can help protect the operator on the ground. “Depending on where he goes down, if he goes down in OIR [Operation Inherent Resolve] if he’s in ISIS-controlled territory [in Iraq or Syria], then it becomes: Let’s coordinate with anyone we have available, whether it be the guys he was with that have bombs or A-10s that were 100 miles away doing whatever,” Allen said. “It gets really busy, but that’s the beauty of the crew and the helicopter. We always have one guy flying…but that other pilot is there to mission manage. Additionally there’s the guys in the back, those [special mission aviators],” he said. “They’ll have notes in grease pen scribbled all the way down the window. […] Anytime new information comes through, they copy it down.”

While the 33rd is fully manned on the pilot side, it’s dealing with a shortfall of special mission aviators like Reid, who says he could fly two to three times a day even at home station. “We’re not critical, we’re not going to fail at our mission set, but we can definitely use a few extra bodies,” he said. “This job takes a toll on people, sitting in the back of the helicopter—even in the front, I’m not saying pilots don’t have it rough — but sitting in the aircraft, people’s knees get hurt, people’s necks and backs start hurting. “In the earlier days of constantly being gone, I knew dudes who were on rotation for four months home, four months on the road, if not longer. But the constant rotation of deployments and exercises take away from people’s lives and families and stuff, so a lot of people get out over time. They don’t make it a career.”
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by discofishing » 25 Feb 2018, 03:41

With the way the USAF wastes ridiculous amounts of money, I say they should be forced to take the US Army's UH-60V upgrade. I know that's for the UH-60Ls, but there are plenty of Ls that were prior As. Heck, used Army surplus UH-60As without ANY upgrades would be a huge improvement over UH-1Ns, some of which are actually former USMC birds. That is ironic, and hilarious at the same time but they deserve it as wasteful as they are. It's time the USAF quit acting like a 16 year-old girl with daddy's credit card at the mall. The tax payers deserve more.



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