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COMANCHE GETS GREEN LIGHT FOR EMD PHASE

After years of being tossed around in the face of conflicting priorities, the RAH-66 Comanche programme is to enter EMD. The US Army plans to procure over 1200 helicopters from 2006.

As they unveiled their army aviation modernisation plan, which had evidently been drawn up in a great hurry, America's ground forces left no doubt on one point: "The US Army is fully committed to the Comanche and our highest-ranking officers have emphasised this recently on a number of different occasions," Brigadier General Craig D. Hacket assured the press in the Pentagon at the beginning of April. The RAH-66 is "the central cornerstone" of the US Army's strategy in the area of reconnaissance and attack.

Such strong words will have been music to Boeing's and Sikorsky's ears, for ever since the Comanche programme first got under way in April 1991 it has been plagued by uncertainty and underfunding. Timescales and possible numbers of units to be procured have been changed countless times. Entry into service of the RAH-66 with the US Army will now take place almost a decade after the original target date. Still, the good news is that 1213 helicopters are to be purchased - less than the original requirement for 2096 machines, but better than a mere 650, the number industry had feared only a few weeks ago.

Work is now to begin on the engineering manufacturing and development (EMD) phase of the programme. The deal is worth US $3.1 billion and should be signed by 1 June. The details have been under negotiation since last August, when Boeing and Sikorsky submitted their tenders.

Before EMD could get under way, milestone II had to be approved by the Defence Acquisition Board, part of the American defence ministry. On 4 April the Board pronounced that the budget calculations were in order and that the helicopter had successfully met all the performance characteristics it was required to prove in the demonstration/validation phase. The criteria against which it was validated included:

• Vertical rate of climb
• Performance of the second generation FLIR
• Heat radiation
• Radar cross-section
• Resistance to gunfire
• Self-test system functionality
• Range of the mast-mounted radar

Up to now flight testing at Sikorsky's West Palm Beach, Florida development flight centre has been carried out almost entirely on prototype number 1. Although its maiden flight took place back in January 1996, this prototype had only completed 201.5 flying hours on 174 flights as of the end of April. The second prototype only took to the air 24 times in 1999 before being mothballed again. This year it may clock up a few more flying hours, but basically it is being held in storage until the mission equipment package becomes available from the end of 2001.

As well as these two test platforms, Boeing and Sikorsky will manufacture five additional Comanches for test purposes during the EMD phase. These will be built to production standard and will commence trials from the spring of 2004. Together with prototypes 1 and 2 they are to be put through a comprehensive test programme of 2900 flying hours which will include opening up of the flight envelope, qualification of the engines, ballistic trials and of course the all-important testing of the complex mission system.

In addition, in 2004/2005 eight preproduction aircraft will be built for field trials with the US Army. These are scheduled for February to August 2006, by which time some important decisions will have been made. First of all, procurement of long-lead items is due to receive the go-ahead in October 2003. Then in June 2005 the decision regarding production of the first series aircraft will be due. If all goes well, first deliveries will take place in December 2006.

Approval for ramping up to full production is scheduled for December 2006, with the first operational unit to be equipped in 2008. Then between 2010 and 2024 around 72 Comanches will be built per year.

This schedule is viewed with scepticism by the US General Accounting Office. In a report issued in the summer of 1999 it criticised, for example, the fact that the decision on milestone II was to be made before any mission system had been integrated in a helicopter. In actual fact a complete system including radar will not be available until the end of 2006.

The GAO also has major reservations about the fact that a large proportion of the flight testing will have to be concentrated into a period of only three years (2004-2006) when the preproduction aircraft are available. This means, in their view, that the number of flying hours required of each helicopter (up to 17 hours per Comanche per month) is unrealistic and the whole programme will be highly susceptible to delays due to possible problems.

The GAO was also critical of the modifications that were necessary to the RAH-66. Increases in weight, even if they were caused by altered requirements, mean amongst other things that the rotor blades must be extended by 15 cm. For certain missions auxiliary tanks will have to be carried, and this will have an adverse effect on speed and stealth characteristics.

As far as costs are concerned, the GAO points out that the Comanche will be tying up a considerable proportion of the Army's total resources available for helicopter equipment - up to two-thirds once production is in full swing. The impact of this will be felt on the Apache programme, for example: only 530 of the 743 AH-64A's will now be brought up to the AH-64D standard, and of these only 227 will be fitted with the Longbow radar.

Evidently the US Army is not contesting these concerns at the moment. Reporters attending the presentation in the Pentagon were told that the army aviation modernisation plan, which also envisages the rapid retirement of the AH-1, UH-1 and OH-58A/C, has been fully taken into account in the budgetary plans up to 2005. What happens after that, however, Brigadier General Hacket and his colleagues omitted to mention.

From page 48 of FLUG REVUE 7/2000