STEWART PENNEY / LONDON
Navy revises MH-60R schedule as Lockheed Martin claims end to development travails
Lockheed Martin says it has solved problems with the MH-60R Seahawk naval helicopter and can meet the US Navy's new schedule. The USN is also to begin operational evaluation (OPEVAL)of the MH-60Snaval utility helicopter.
Progress on the MH-60R has been delayed by integration issues, but Sikorsky flew the first MH-60R test machine last month. It will be equipped with flight test instruments at the USN's test centre at NAS Patuxent River before Lockheed Martin Systems Integration-Owego (LMSI-Owego) install a new mission system. Ron Christenson, the firm's director multi-mission helicopter programmes, says the helicopter's first flight with the upgrade is set for 4 April 2002.
LMSI-Owego testing of the helicopter's ALQ-210 electronic support measures suite is under way at Patuxent River and periscope detection trials with the Telephonics APS-147 radar were performed in April.
Christenson says the MH-60R problems are behind it, adding: "We have an integrated, doable schedule for the Milestone 3 production decision." The full rate acquisition baseline was agreed in March. "We have also laid-out the pre-planned product improvement programme for the future, and the schedule has been met every time for the last eight months."
As a result of the USN's decision to shift to new-build airframes and "review the test programme", the full-rate production decision has slipped from 2004 to 2005.
SH-60B/Fs rebuilt as MH-60Rs would have retained the tail, rotor blades and landing gear mated to a new cabin and other structures with a greater load carrying capability. The rebuilt machines would have had a 20,000h life, double the original, but concerns were raised about the cost of maintaining the original components in service.
Meanwhile, three MH-60S are taking part in the three-month OPEVAL at Patuxent River. The utility craft shares the same LMSI-Owego-developed glass cockpit as the MH-60R.
Source: Flight International
