Boeing makes new offer for ARH

Boeing is offering its AH-6M to replace the Bell ARH-70A as the US Army prepares to decide by 18 May whether or not to continue the troubled Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter (ARH) programme.

Bell says it submitted its recovery plan for the ARH programme to the army on 20 April. Meanwhile, the ARH-70 team has restarted development testing on company funding after the army rescinded the stop-work order issued because of schedule delays and escalating costs.

Boeing says it can meet all the original ARH key performance parameters, achieve the first unit equipped date of 2009 and produce the helicopters within the US Army's budget. Boeing lost the ARH competition to Bell, but says its new offer has two key differences. The AH-6M has commercial cockpit displays and not the army-standard Rockwell Collins CAAS common avionics architecture system specified for the ARH and fitted to the ARH-70.

Airframes would also be supplied by MD Helicopters, which was foreign-owned at the time of the ARH competition, requiring Boeing to find alternative suppliers. MD is now US-owned and producing airframes for the MD 530 light commercial helicopter, basis for the AH-6M, at a new plant in Mexico. Boeing flew one of two AH-6M company demonstrators to last week's Army Aviation Association of America convention in Atlanta.

Bell, meanwhile, says it is making progress, completing two of three events required for approval of low-rate initial production: demonstrations of digital connectivity and air transportability. The third event, limited user test (LUT), is on hold pending availability of two fully performing FLIR Systems targeting sensors so that it can field two aircraft for army testing, now tentatively set for late this year.

Bell says it has one sensor that performs to requirements, but needs a second system to ensure the improvements are repeatable and it is ready to enter production. "Issues in flight test have been resolved and we have got one system working well, but we need two systems working well to be ready for LUT," the company says, adding that FLIR is building the second sensor.

Source: Flight International