Ramon Lopez/FORT WORTH
The US Army plans to procure 1,213 Boeing/Sikorsky RAH-66 Comanche helicopters, but seems to be stepping back from its aim of converting all Boeing AH-64As into the more capable Apache Longbow configuration.
A March 2000 draft of the aviation modernisation plan obtained by Flight International shows that the US Army has ruled out reducing the size of its planned RAH-66 Comanche fleet.
Maj Gen Anthony Jones, US Army Aviation Center commander and author of the aircraft procurement plan, which was to be officially released on 1 April is scheduling the full complement of Comanches to be delivered.
The plan is being presented to the US Department of Defense Acquisition Board (DAB) for approval. Concern over funding has generated speculation that the DAB might decide to cut the $43 billion RAH-66 programme to 650 machines, ending helicopter production by 2016.
The draft plan envisages production starting in fiscal year 2004, leading to initial fielding in December 2006 and a full cavalry squadron equipped by FY2008. The strategy retains a maximum production rate of 72 Comanches a year, beginning in FY2010, running through FY2024.
Boeing officials will be less pleased with the US Army's current plan for the AH-64. The army leadership had hoped to reverse last year's cuts to the number of early-model Apaches to be upgraded to the AH-64D standard. Originally, 743 AH-64As were to be modernised and 227 millimetre-wave radars acquired. Last year, the number of upgrades was slimmed to 530, but radar numbers rose to 500.
The draft plan calls for upgrade of 600 AH-64As to the Apache Longbow configuration. To remain in service through to FY2020, they would be replaced by a new attack helicopter, an upgraded RAH-66, or a further remanufactured AH-64. The draft document reverts back to 227 fire-control radar (FCR) purchases through to FY2007. "The Army is awaiting the completion of the Attack Helicopter Battalion Mix Study to determine the correct number of FCRs based upon the new force structure," the plan says.
The army will further modernise 300 tandem-rotor Boeing Chinook helicopters through to 2013 to CH-47F configuration at a cost of $3 billion.
Source: Flight International
