This article first appeared in Aviation Week’s Aerospace Daily and Defense Report.
U.S. Air Force Space Command (AFSPC) is again pushing for a program to replace its aging UH-1N helicopters, saying that its current aircraft are too slow to handle the modern nuclear weapons support mission.
AFSPC vice chief Maj. Gen. Thomas Deppe says that the command has included a funding request in its fiscal 2010 draft budget to begin a program to replace the aging Hueys. “Any helicopter in the inventory is faster than that UH-1,” he said during a breakfast speech May 28 hosted by the National Defense University Foundation. A new helicopter would need to have greater range, improved speed and armor protection, Deppe added.
The helicopters are used to escort nuclear weapons teams servicing the Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile fleet. They also are used to quickly transport security teams in the event of an alert at the missile fields. Todays Huey lacks the range to traverse the largest of the missile fields in one mission.
“An 80–85 percent solution may be good enough,” Deppe said, acknowledging that attempts to buy a Huey replacement in the past have failed to produce a viable program. “We could buy something off the shelf that could easily” handle the mission, he said.
Most recently, the Air Force discussed the concept of a Common Vertical Lift Support Program, which would provide a common helicopter to replace those used by AFSPC as well as the aging executive transports operating out of Andrews Air Force Base, Md.
However, helicopter procurements for USAF appear to be paced by the Combat Search and Rescue-X (CSAR-X) quagmire. The Air Force is examining responses from CSAR-X bidders with an award possible this fall.
Read the rest of this story, how some Dutch want to scuttle the JSF and pics of a pooch with a nose for TNT from our Aviation Week friends on Military.com.
– Christian
So what’s the problem? I can think of only two advantages for the UH-1; stabilty in flight and easy maintenance (as in simplicity and availabilty of spareparts). for the rest any helo with enough payload and range will do…So why not H-60M’s?
And armor in a Helo? Until this day there is no transporthelo that has armor in it’s original design (not talking about armored seats), only add-ons kevlar and such. Providing extra weight penalty.
i got a idea how about the chair force spend less money on fancy chow halls and barracks. and stupid policies like airmen get extra pay because they dont have x amount of living space when deployed. then maybe they would have more cash to accomplice their missions.
What I took out of this is that someone somewhere is willing to take off the shelf stuff and make it work, instead of looking for some new super helo with a billion mile range that can take a trillion 25mm rounds, they said really almost any bird we already use would work great. Can we get a few of them? If only more people operated like that.
Eh, Space Command is probably just pissy because they are feeling irrelevant lately (no real threats except china and they arn’t being noisy all that much). They are probably just pushing for their own Ospreys since only the AF spec ops guys and the Marines have gotten them so far.
Get a newer copter?
Used or New?
BlackHawk?
HH 53?
S 67?
Why don’t they use UH-72A Lakotas? Like it or not,it makes sense.
These helicopters are all Vietnam War vintage, and they were already showing signs of wear and tear when I was a missile maintenance officer at Minot AFB 20 years ago. They routinely lost power in flight and it wasn’t uncommon for the pilots to auto-rotate onto some farmer’s chicken shed or barn. It was getting dangerous. Around that time, an airborne security team escorting a nuclear weapons convoy from Ellsworth AFB crashed, killing everyone on board. I fully support getting our guys some decent and SAFE aircraft to fly in. They should have replaced the Hueys a long time ago.
I agree. Just bump up the quantity of UH-72A Lakotas we order. Roughly how many UH-1’s are we talking about? Would this even be a big order?
slntax:
Maybe you should do a bit more research about how the various allowance pays work. I’ll give you a hint, they are basically the same for all the services.
BUT: Before you finish that bit of work I have two suggestions for you:
1. Learn to spell, proper spelling makes you look like less of a moron.
2. Use proper grammar. You should have been issued this ability upon graduate from high school.
3. Stop drinking what ever “hard core” service you belong to’s Kool-Aid.
I’ll say it again,for stateside missions,the UH-72A Lakota is the way to go.It has two engines like the UH-1N & most likely can do a better job than the UH-1N.It’s either that or have the Air Force buy the upgraded UH-1Y Huey that the Marine Corps are also buying.The UH-72A would most likely be cheaper though.If you just gotta have a tiltrotor aircraft,but not one as big as the Osprey,you could get the BA609 Tiltrotor,but then again,the UH-72A would mostly be cheaper & just as good as the more expensive UH-1Y or BA609.
Why not just replace them with Chinooks? fastest helo in the current inventory and it can carry a lot of stuff.
Why not use V-22 Ospreys?
“Why not use V-22 Ospreys?“
Too big.If the Air Force wanted an adequate tiltrotor aircraft,they could use the BA609 Tiltrotor.It’s smaller than the V-22.
I’m surprised though how,except for one other person(this will be the 3rd time I mention it),nobody else is seriously considering the UH-72A Lakota to replace the UH-1N Huey for U.S. Space Command.
Ok we are in the middle of phasing out two perfectly good airframes… the HH-60 Pave Hawk and the MH-53 Pave Low. There is no need to develop a new helo or even look at purchasing commercial options. If you ask me Security Forces would probably love having either one of these airframes covering their butts when the clowns get crazy.
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