Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC
US Army programme executive officer for aviation, Maj Gen James Snider, is working to reverse last year's cuts to the number of Boeing AH-64A attack helicopters to be upgraded to AH-64D Apache Longbow configuration. He says the cuts are "a bad idea".
Meanwhile, the US Army is poised to formally launch a competition for a second generation targeting and navigation sensor for the AH-64, and it has significantly increased the number of Sikorsky UH-60A Black Hawk utility helicopters that will be rebuilt to UH-60L+ standard.
The US Army has still to decide the ultimate number of Apaches that it will remanufacture as AH-64Ds, as well as the quantity of Lockheed Martin/Northrop Grumman Longbow fire control radars needed to equip the fleet. Originally, 743 AH-64As were to be modernised and 227 millimetre wave radars were to be acquired. Last year the number of AH-64Dupgrades was slimmed to 530 but radar numbers rose to 500.
Snider wants to modernise a third batch of 218 AH-64As from 2007. He believes the third multi-year award should include a new drive train and rotor system, an area in which Boeing has spent $35 million on associated research work.
He says the US Army will release the final request for proposals for a second generation target acquisition designation system (TADS) and pilot night vision system (PNVS) before the end of January. Lockheed Martin, which supplied the AH-64's first generation sensor, is proposing Arrowhead, which is based on the electro-optical sensor for the Boeing/Sikorsky RAH-66 Comanche.
Raytheon is offering its horizontal technology integration/second generation forward-looking infrared system. A second generation sensor would enter service in 2002 or 2003.
The Black Hawk modernisation programme now calls for up to 900 UH-60As to be upgraded to UH-60L+ standard from 2002. Another 357 will be converted to the UH-60Q medevac configuration, while 255 UH-60Ls will become UH-60Xs from around 2008.
Source: Flight International
