Helicópteros de combate

[Truquichan]

[champi]

Contrato de mantenimiento para el Apache (20/8/2021): https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Contra ... e/2741226/

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ARMY

The Boeing Co., Mesa, Arizona, was awarded a $487,000,000 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for Apache AH-64 engineering services and technical support. Bids were solicited via the internet with one received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Feb. 6, 2026. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity (W58RGZ-21-D-0077).
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Del mismo día, sobre el Aviator's Night Vision Imaging System III:

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Elbit Systems of America - Night Vision LLC, Roanoke, Virginia (W91CRB-21-D-0017); and L3 Technologies Inc., Londonderry, New Hampshire (W91CRB-21-D-0009), will compete for each order of the $92,440,406 firm-fixed-price contract for the Aviator's Night Vision Imaging System III. Bids were solicited via the internet with two received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Aug. 22, 2025. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, is the contracting activity.
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[Vorlon]

Evidentemente hay muchas necesidades en las FAS españolas, o no tan evidentes...

De siempre he echado en falta aparatos ligeros,facilmente transportables en el A400. El Tigre es lo que es, no hay duda, pero utilitarios armados nunca sobran. Ese H145 con Sistema de armas sería un apoyo muy bien recibido en muchas misiones en el exterior.



https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/4 ... he-airport

saludos

[Urcitano]

De siempre he echado en falta aparatos ligeros, facilmente transportables en el A400. El Tigre es lo que es, no hay duda. pero utilitarios armados nunca sobran. Ese H145 con Sistema de armas sería un apoyo muy bien recibido en muchas misiones en el exterior.

COINCIDO.
De hecho el H145M tendría hueco no solo en las FAS sino fuera de ellas, como en Guardia Civil y CNP junto con los EC135, o en Aduanas, (con flotadores y tanques externos para mas autonomía y pueden ir artillados "porsiaca") para relevar al Bo105 y al BK117 operativos.

Para las FAS esa versión artillada junto con el sistema HFORCE no le vendría nada mal a FAMET, con un batallon (BHELMA IV???), y al 781º del EdA, que podría cubrir misiones SAR y algo mas ofensivas con la misma plataforma.
Evidentemente tendria "apoyo" a fuerzas SOF aunque también puede hacer de "escudero" del NH90 en misiones cotidianas. Aunque parece que aqui vamos a ir a por H160M, ya veremos.




También pienso que cierto numero de NH90 de FAMET y del EdA deberían de tener el sistema HFORCE.

[champi]

Contrato de mantenimiento e inspección de la transmisión de los CH-47 del US Army (23/8/2021): https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Contra ... e/2742857/

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ARMY

The Boeing Co., Ridley Park, Pennsylvania, was awarded a $49,700,000 firm-fixed-price contract for the inspection and overhaul of the CH-47 Chinook mechanical transmission. Bids were solicited via the internet with one received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Aug. 23, 2025. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity (W58RGZ-21-D-0031).
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[Azael]

Para las FAS esa versión artillada junto con el sistema HFORCE no le vendría nada mal a FAMET, con un batallon (BHELMA IV???), y al 781º del EdA, que podría cubrir misiones SAR y algo mas ofensivas con la misma plataforma.
Evidentemente tendria "apoyo" a fuerzas SOF aunque también puede hacer de "escudero" del NH90 en misiones cotidianas. Aunque parece que aqui vamos a ir a por H160M, ya veremos.

Yo pienso que a España le viene bien todo aquello que tenga al final del día un uso y una continuidad práctica en nuestro ejército, y que no valla a ser canibalizado, partiendo de esa base, prefiero mil veces eso, a los Tiger.

[champi]

Contrato de mantenimiento hasta 2026 para el "Limited Interim Missile Warning System Quick Reaction Capability" de los helicópteros del US Army (24/8/2021): https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Contra ... e/2744379/

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ARMY

BAE Systems Information and Electronics Systems Integration, Nashua, New Hampshire, was awarded an $843,894,209 modification (P00006) to contract W58RGZ-21-D-0023 for life cycle contractor support for the Limited Interim Missile Warning System Quick Reaction Capability. Bids were solicited via the internet with one received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Feb. 2, 2026. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity.
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Del mismo día, contrato relacionado con el TADS/PNVS:

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Lockheed Martin Corp., Orlando, Florida, was awarded a $10,830,150 modification (P00001) to contract W58RGZ-21-F-0360 for Modernized Target Acquisition and Designation System/Pilot Night Vision Systems. Work will be performed in Orlando, Florida, with an estimated completion date of Dec. 31, 2024. Fiscal 2021 aircraft procurement, Army funds in the amount of $10,830,150 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity.
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Contrato para el UH-60M (26/8/2021): https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Contra ... e/2749660/

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Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., Stratford, Connecticut, was awarded a $53,895,498 modification (P00197) to contract W58RGZ-17-C-0009 for production of UH-60M Black Hawks. Work will be performed in Stratford, Connecticut, with an estimated completion date of June 30, 2022. Fiscal 2022 special funds in the amount of $53,895,498 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity.
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[champi]

Parece que el FARA tiene requisitos demasiado ambiciosos que habrá que rebajar. Un interesante artículo al respecto, en el que se proponen varias iniciativas, centradas en la reducción del peso: https://vtol.org/news/decision-time-for-fara

By Mike Hirschberg, Executive Director
The Vertical Flight Society
From Vertiflite September/October 2021
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The six key attributes for the FARA Competitive Prototypes (CP) are:

· First flight: in fiscal 2023
· Maximum speed: at least 180 kt (333 km/h)
· Engine: a single 3,000-shp (2,240-kW) GE T901 being developed in the Improved Turbine Engine Program (ITEP)
· Rotor: 40 ft (12.2 m) diameter
· Max gross weight: 14,000 lb (6,350 kg)
· Mission: range, endurance, capability as specified

The last one — performance — is, of course, the challenge. No, there is nothing incompatible with the laws of physics in the first five requirements, but what performance is achievable with today’s technology? Therein lies the rub.

Fortier’s comments were profound in their honesty. “There's no version of the world that exists in physics… where the speed at range, endurance at range and payload all exist in a 14,000-lb helicopter — not at what we're asking you to do.”

After design study contracts were awarded to five companies in 2019, the Army selected Bell’s lift-compound 360 Invictus and Sikorsky’s lift-offset thrust-compound Raider X last year, and both companies are now about 50% complete assembling their competitive prototypes (see “Making FVL,” pg. 16). The Army intends to select one company in fiscal 2024 to develop its concept for FARA Increment 1 to enter service in 2030. This 11-year development is less than half the time of modern military aircraft development programs.

Fortier explained the basics of the helicopter design problem:

Speed: It’s very counterintuitive, but 180 knots is heavy. Why is it heavy? It's heavy because you’ve got to retract the gear... It's a drag problem. Maybe you've got to put some lift-share on the wings if you're one of the designs, because you have a single-rotor helicopter [i.e., Bell]. Maybe you put eight rotor blades out because you have extra technology [i.e., Sikorsky]. Maybe those extra rotor blades are pretty big, pretty heavy. And that transmission then becomes very, very heavy to get the speeds and you’ve got a pusher-prop in the back… It's just physics at the end of the day.

So, [we’re] learning a ton about speed, learning where the sensitivity is in speed. Learning that 177 to 181 [kt] — what does that cost? Learning 181 to 185 [kt] — what does that cost? What does it mean to the design?

Now, ideally, if you're going to design a future helicopter, you're going to want to design the helicopter around the requirement, get the design, and then figure out how much shaft horsepower you need to go from there, right? In our case, we're powered by the ITEP. Again, all for the right reasons: for affordability across the Branch and Army Aviation. Common engine, common engine strategy. So, we have a 3,000 shp engine. So, now we've got a machine that needs to go fast with 3,000 shp, a 40-ft rotor disc, and a target weight of 14,000 lb. The design box just got very, very small for that piece of the puzzle. So, that's why we need to continue to iterate, and get to understand where those trades are, how they trade within the framework of requirements and go from there.

The desire to be able to fly down city streets, like the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior and AH-6 Little Bird, set the rotor diameter at 40 ft and “we don’t really want to go higher than that,” Fortier said. But “those are decisions that will be made by our senior leaders.”
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As noted in my 2018 Commentary on FARA, “The challenge is that the Phase 1 contract awards are planned for June 2019 and the first flight is expected by the end of calendar 2022. To meet this deadline, companies must make many major decisions in the October/November 2018 timeframe so that they can submit their proposals by Dec. 18, and then continue with their operational analysis to refine their designs significantly prior to receiving a contract.”

Fortier echoed these words: “First flight by 2023 for industry meant that they had to go out with long-lead [orders] in 2019.” The FARA CP request for proposal (RFP) demanded that companies come up with their best approach in 2018 and then finalize that design into a prototype, with little room for major changes. As noted in that Commentary, this timeline forced industry to make major decisions early in the development process to meet an aggressive first flight date for CP. Unfortunately, the original requirements that drove these early CP decisions, as Fortier noted, were overly constraining.
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What other avenues can be explored, besides reducing the speed or increasing rotor diameter by several feet?

· The Army wants FARA to benefit from advanced cockpits with artificial intelligence (AI) and other decision aids — are two pilots necessary or would a single-seat FARA work, with significant weight savings?
· What about the mission equipment package (MEP)? The amount of electronics required has a significant impact on the size and weight of the aircraft. For FARA, the Army is asking for avionics capabilities on par with the 23,000-lb (10.4-metric-ton) AH-64E Apache, with busses for the modular open systems approach (MOSA) as well as legacy systems, which all require space, weight and power (SWAP), including significant amounts of cooling.
· To go fast with a large aircraft, more power is apparently required than available from the 3,000 shp T901. Does the Army develop a growth version of the engine, or dial down on some other requirement for future Increments? Bell announced it had added a Pratt & Whitney PW207D1 turboshaft rated at 610 shp (450 kW) to its Invictus design as a supplemental power unit (SPU); should that approach be extrapolated for more power?
· Like MEP, aircraft survivability equipment (ASE) and survivability requirements adds weight and performance inefficiencies. At what point do the negatives actually make the aircraft less survivable because it is too slow or not maneuverable enough?
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[Truquichan]

Parece que el FARA tiene requisitos demasiado ambiciosos que habrá que rebajar. Un interesante artículo al respecto, en el que se proponen varias iniciativas, centradas en la reducción del peso: https://vtol.org/news/decision-time-for-fara

¡Muy interesante, moooola!

[champi]

Este caso podría ir tanto al Apache como a elementos del FVL: https://twitter.com/AlexLuck9/status/14 ... 6029309955


Más información: https://www.dvidshub.net/news/404317/ap ... onstration

09.01.2021 Story by Paul Stevenson
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PEO Aviation’s Apache Sensors Product Office in coordination with Redstone Test Center (RTC), the Future Vertical Lift- Cross Functional Team (FVL CFT), and a commercial vendor, successfully executed flight demonstrations July 13 through August 4 at Redstone Army Airfield, to display the next possible generation of helicopter cockpit technology.

To showcase this technology Apache Sensors hosted more than 30 dignitaries representing 23 different Army organizations and key aviation industry partners July 28 for a capability demonstration featuring a binocular color high definition see-thru helmet mounted display (HMD) with an AH-64E Version 6 Apache Attack Helicopter. As part of the event all participants were provided the opportunity to view video and data collected during demonstration flights. They also asked questions and engaged with the system developer as well as test and line pilots who had flown the system, and also wear the helmet while in the front cockpit of the Apache aircraft.

Originally developed for advanced fighter aircraft, the capability is now being adapted to potentially meet the needs of currently fielded and future rotary aircraft. The system demonstrated is a prototype 61° display considered to possibly replace the AH-64E Improved Helmet and Display Sight System. It is also a viable option for the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA), and Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) programs.

The event consisted of 23 flights on an AH-64E Version 6 Apache Attack Helicopter totaling 29.9 flight hours. The flights were conducted by 17 pilots the RTC, 101st Airborne Division, and the Army Capability Management - Recon Attack. The flights included familiarization, evaluation, and survey flights with each pilot providing positive feedback on the demonstrated capability.
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For four weeks, day and night flight missions were conducted, successfully achieving several goals including: the exhibition of a candidate system to meet objective requirements for a high-definition, binocular see-thru HMD; Improved Lethality and Survivability of the aircraft; present an HMD as a potential solution for FVL programs; obtain input, recommendations and consideration of use from active Army pilots participating in the flight demonstration; demonstrate Picture in Picture application benefits for advanced attack helicopter applications/targeting; demonstrate the capability to provide a crew tailorable combination of flight and targeting symbology, overlaid with fused sensor (Day/EO/IR) for enhanced situational awareness; conduct a 30mm gun live fire to demonstrate improved lethality and survivability the aircraft.

With this technology pilots are not limited by the boundaries of the cockpit since a vast view around and below the aircraft is provided. Visual obstacles are reduced, improving safety, pilot efficiency, combat survivability, and pilot workload is reduced - all which aid in protecting the pilot and help improve mission effectiveness. The system’s 61° field of view allows the pilot to observe the full 52° of blended Gen 2 Pilot Night Vision System (PNVS) video. The aircraft conformal 2D, and 3D symbology, video masking, picture-in-picture video, synthetic world symbology and the visual Display and Sight (DAS) sensor can be viewed through the 61° field of view with low latency line of sight for 3D symbology and augmented reality.

The HMD provides critical information straight to the warfighters’ eyes, which is particularly important for low-level combat operations where there is little margin for error. Three dimensional conformal and Synthetic Vision Symbology, plus fused sensor data with tactical flight and mission data, are presented onto a wide field-of-view display in a ‘transparent cockpit’ format.
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Curiosa imagen de un Rooivalk lanzando cuatro Mk81: https://twitter.com/darren_olivier/stat ... 0352109572

[champi]

Posible contrato relacionado con el SARA ("Sikorsky Autonomy Research Aircraft"): https://sam.gov/opp/d13e4d88f4164a5899e ... a2ca2/view

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NASA/ AFRC has a requirement for the use an advanced rotary wing research testbed aircraft equipped with a 4-axis full authority open architecture digital flight control system for research and development of automation systems for helicopters.

NASA / AFRC intends to issue a sole source contract to Lockheed Martin – Sikorsky for use of the LM-S Sikorsky Autonomy Research Aircraft (SARA); use of associated automation simulation facilities and software; and support from their qualified flight crew and subject matter experts to conduct testing NASA flight automation research technologies.

LM-S Sikorsky is the only known organization who can provide a commercial testbed with: (1) an open architecture 4-axis digital autopilot / flight management system (FMS); (2) variable stability in flight simulation system (VSS) able to host NASA flight automation algorithms; (3) VSS and autopilot / FMS that has full authority over the aircraft for both strategic and tactical maneuvering; (4) flight management automation system on the path to FAA certification. Authority for this action is 10 U.S.C. 2304 (c) (1), as implemented by FAR 6.302-1(a) (1) – Only one responsible source.
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Se trata de un S-76B con la tecnología MATRIX: https://www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/pr ... ology.html

[Atticus]

Se trata de un S-76B con la tecnología MATRIX: https://www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/pr ... ology.html

A Steve Roger le gusta esta publicacion.

[Truquichan]

Posible contrato relacionado con el SARA ("Sikorsky Autonomy Research Aircraft")

El "Skyborg" de alas rotatorias empieza a tener forma.

[Daishi]

Para las FAS esa versión artillada junto con el sistema HFORCE no le vendría nada mal a FAMET, con un batallon (BHELMA IV???), y al 781º del EdA, que podría cubrir misiones SAR y algo mas ofensivas con la misma plataforma.
Evidentemente tendria "apoyo" a fuerzas SOF aunque también puede hacer de "escudero" del NH90 en misiones cotidianas. Aunque parece que aqui vamos a ir a por H160M, ya veremos.

Yo pienso que a España le viene bien todo aquello que tenga al final del día un uso y una continuidad práctica en nuestro ejército, y que no valla a ser canibalizado, partiendo de esa base, prefiero mil veces eso, a los Tiger.

Pues no creo que ni un solo piloto del Bhela lo prefiriese...es como decir que prefieres un Huey Artillado a un Cobra. A los "Mortadelos" se les criticó mucho que no fuera un diseño estrictamente para uso militar y el H145M es directamente un helicópteros civil tuneado a militar.
Saludos

[champi]

Boeing y Sikorsky envían su propuesta definitiva para el FLRAA: https://news.lockheedmartin.com/sikorsk ... ly-us-army

La RFP se lanzó el 6 de julio directamente a los dos competidores, aunque en los presupuestos el plazo que daban era hasta el cuarto trimestre del FY2021. Si esa es la fecha correcta, es raro que no hayan aporovechado más el tiempo para pulir más su propuesta, ya aún tenían bastante margen. Ahora falta Bell, y una vez que se tengan ambas alternativas, se evaluarán en el segundo cuarto del FY2022, escogiéndose el ganador en el siguiente trimestre.