Approval of cockpit modification to pave way for standardised rotorcraft fleet
The US Army Special Operations Command expects to receive production approval next month for a Rockwell Collins-developed cockpit upgrade that is a key element of an ambitious helicopter fleet-modernisation plan.
Special Operations Aviation (SOA) plans to make the upgraded cockpit and avionics package common across the three primary airframes it aims to operate in the future. The 160th SOA Regiment maintains a fleet of three different models across 10 standards, but under its modernisation goal plans to standardise on three aircraft: the Boeing MH-47G Chinook; MD Helicopters MH-6M Little Bird and Sikorsky MH-60M Black Hawk. Each of the types is expected to be fitted with the Common Avionics Architecture System (CAAS), which is on track to enter service next year.
The developmental system is also expected to be adopted by the US Army’s CH-47Fs in 2007 and UH-60Ms around 2009, and by the US Coast Guard’s HH-60 fleet.
Consisting of multifunction and control display units, data concentrator units and general purpose processors, the CAAS is designed to overcome problems of growing obsolescence in current avionics, and to enable the aircraft to keep pace with more advanced systems and capabilities. SOA’s current MH-60 and MH-47 cockpits are, for example, unable to support new forward-looking infrared (FLIR) sensors due for delivery late this year.
More than 750 test hours have been amassed on the CAAS using four test aircraft since the first flight in January 2004. A full production release decision scheduled for 7 December will clear the system for use across all operating regimes, with the exception of multi-mode radar (MMR) terrain-following operations.
Early tests of the MMR revealed some interference problems between the radar and the installation of enlarged FLIR turrets, and a one-year requalification effort was launched in September. MH-60L weapons testing has also begun, with an airworthiness release expected by late January 2006.
GUY NORRIS/LOS ANGELES
Source: Flight International
