Paul Lewis/WASHINGTON DC
The US Marine Corps is reserving judgement on participating in the US Army-led Joint Transport Rotorcraft (JTR) programme until the joint staff's critical Overarching Rotorcraft Capabilities Assessment (ORCA) is completed. Meanwhile, the USMC is drawing up plans to extend the service life of its Sikorsky CH-53E helicopters.
"We're following the JTR, but it's joint in name only," says Lt Col Curt Haberbosch, USMC assault support and executive helicopter requirements co-ordinator. "They ask for our input and we offer it, but there is nothing that requires they use that input," he tells Flight International.
The USMC does not rule out co-operating with the army eventually to develop a CH-53E and Boeing CH-47F replacement, but under the umbrella of the wider ranging ORCA. The results of the 18-month study are to be presented shortly to the Joint Requirements Oversight Committee.
ORCA encompasses a spectrum of capabilities, including the study of a Joint Common Attack/Armed Reconnaissance Aircraft replacement for the USMC's Bell AH-1Z and the army's Boeing AH-64Ds, a Joint Common Assault Multirole Aircraft to replace the UH-1Y and Sikorsky UH-60s among others, as well as a Joint Common Lift (JCL) programme. "The JTR may get folded in with the JCL portion of ORCA," says Haberbosch.
There is interest in using the Joint Strike Fighter as a model, which, rather than locking down an operational requirements document at the programme's outset, would allow it to mature with technology. With the USMC's shift towards an all vertical/short take-off and landing force, attention is focused on a tiltwing or tiltrotor solution that might provide a "combined replacement for the CH-53E and Lockheed Martin KC-130 tankers", says Haberbosch.
The JTR has been pencilled in for around 2015-20, whereas the USMC does not anticipate replacing its CH-53Es before 2025. The marines plan a structural upgrade and avionics improvements in the interim, to extend the helicopter's life beyond 2012, when the bulk of its 165 machines would otherwise have to be retired. It hopes to secure funding to begin work in fiscal year 2005.
The aim is to double the fatigue life of the CH-53E, with work focusing primarily on the cabin, main transmission and tail, as well as the replacement of obsolescent avionics. With the final production helicopter delivered last October, the USMC's immediate concern is to preserve some tooling and to collate a common data package.
Source: Flight International
