STEWART PENNEY & MICHAEL PHELAN / LONDON
The trend of upgrading and rebuilding machines looks set to continue as development of new airframes slows to ease pressure on defence budgets
Industry insiders and observers generally agree the market for military helicopters is improving. The move away from heavy forces to light, rapidly deployable and air-mobile troops is driving the need for transport and utility machines, while the attack helicopter is in demand as a highly mobile, heavily-armed support asset.
At sea, the changing nature of maritime operations - interdicting drug and people smugglers, policing international embargoes and servicing the expanded capabilities of modern warships - means naval helicopters are being developed with greater functionality.
To reduce the cost of delivering additional capabilities and to ease the strain on stretched budgets, upgrades - rather than new production - have become the vogue. A proposal to upgrade 111 US Marine Corps-operated Sikorsky CH-53 heavylift helicopters, for instance, comes in at an estimated $22-26 million per airframe, around half the cost of building new machines - a possible saving of $2.8 billion.
Airframe reuse
Although such programmes do not necessarily run smoothly, the benefit of reusing large parts of existing airframes and associated systems has proved popular. But not always; after suffering setbacks the US Navy has decided the MH-60R multirole maritime machine will be built new rather than reusing components from in-service SH-60B/Fs.
Elsewhere, rebuilding H-60 airframes remains a popular option. The US Army plans to remanufacture 1,217 UH-60A/Ls to M standard with new Rockwell Collins glass cockpits and upgraded, increased durability, uprated General Electric T700-701D engines and wide-chord rotor blades derived from Sikorsky's S/H-92.
The USMC's programme to convert Bell UH-1 utility machines to Y standard and the SuperCobras to AH-1Z standard is another that has run into difficulties. These upgrades share a common four-bladed main rotor and glass cockpit. Avionics integration has been the main problem, suggesting the programmes would have been particularly fraught had the USMC started with new-build aircraft rather than refurbishing the current fleet.
The US armed forces have a shortfall in large, modern, transport machines. The US Army is upgrading its Boeing CH-47 Chinooks to F standard, while the USMC is pushing to upgrade the Sikorsky CH-53 to ensure its operation beyond 2010.
The CH-47Ds are receiving new glass cockpits as part of the F programme, while the Honeywell T55-714 engines are being upgraded to boost hot-and-high performance - a lower maintenance rotor system is being introduced as part of a separately funded programme. The F modifications are the basis for a proposed upgrade of MH-47E special-missions machines, which have been in high demand during operations in Afghanistan and for anti-terrorist work in the Philippines. As with the earlier CH-47C to D rebuild, the F will presumably find a ready market with the Chinook's international operators.
Russian helicopters are proving targets for the upgraders. Like their US counterparts, there are sufficient numbers of Mil-built machines from the Soviet era to justify the upgrade development costs. Another advantage is component commonality between types such as the Mil Mi-8 Hip and Mi-24 Hind. French, Israeli, South African and UK companies, as well as Russian, are offering Mil modifications.
The Russian defence ministry plans to modernise its Mi-8s and Mi-24s following experience gained in the Chechnya campaign, and to provide night attack capability and improved engagement ranges. There are also less sophisticated navigation upgrades, such as Rostvertol's weapon system updates, which have proved popular with countries equipped with secondhand Mi-8s and Mi-24s.
Upgrades favourable
Despite Mil's criticism of Western manufacturers at last month's Farnborough air show for offering Mi-8 and Mi-24 upgrades, such proposals are generally viewed favourably. The four Visegrad nations, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, are key targets. They want to keep theMi-24 at the forefront of their strike force, but also want compatibility with the rest of NATO (three of the Visegrad nations are the alliance's newest members, while Slovakia is keen to join).
Western upgraders, however, have not eliminated Eastern manufacturers entirely. BAE Systems, for instance, has signed up Russia's Kazan Helicopters, a production organisation which has been manufacturing Mil designs for more than 50 years.
In Western Europe, the biggest helicopter remanufacturing programmes on the horizon are the UK's Battlefield Light Utility Helicopter (BLUH) and the Surface Combatant Maritime Rotorcraft (SCMR). The British Army BLUH and UK Royal Navy SCMR programmes could be rebuilds of today's Westland Lynx airframes, integrating new systems and sensors with new-build airframes equipped with systems from existing machines.
With the development of new airframes slowing, upgrading existing helicopters, or building new fuselages to the same design and installing new avionics and other systems, will continue to be a popular means of maintaining and developing a machine's capability without stretching tight defence budgets.
Source: Flight International
