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Aviation History
2001
2001 - 2108.PDF
ombat helicopters have been a feature of the battlefield for almost 35 years, dating to the Bell AH-l's Vietnam war debut. From a comparatively simple gun and rocket-armed fire support plat form, the armed helicopter evolved in the 1970s and '80s into anti-tank killers designed to halt Soviet Red Army armour in its tracks. Today's demand is for more robust helicopters capable of deploying to and operating in less clearly defined areas, able to respond to different threats and to be fully interoperable with other systems and air arms. Older helicopters face the considerable challenge of modernising in the face of a rapidly changing doctrinal landscape and breakneck advances in computing technol ogy. Today's combat machines, however, are mature and tested weapon systems that have benefited from the operational lessons of the Gulf War and interventions in Somalia and the Balkans. The steady slide in defence spending since the fall of the Berlin Wall has left mil itary planners wrestling to balance the conflicting needs of funding new pro grammes while trying to keep increasingly aged systems operationally relevant. The Boeing Sikorsky RAH-66 Comanche, for example, was conceived in the early 1980s as the LHX, yet it is not due to achieve ini tial operational capability until December 2006 and the last of 1,213 planned machines will roll off the line in 2026. Despite its protracted gestation, the Comanche is unquestionably the bench mark against which current and future combat helicopters will be measured. This is underscored by the way the RAH-66 is being positioned as the centrepiece of the US Army's Aviation Modernisation Plan and in the vanguard of its lighter and more lethal Objective Force planned for and beyond. The compact 4.3t machine encompasses the latest beyond-line-of-sight broadband communications, onboard and remote sensor, command, control, communica tions, computers and intelligence data fusion, fly-by-wire (FBW) flight controls, fibre-optic databases, a third-generation binocular helmet-mounted display (HMD), integral self-test diagnostics, ballistic toler ant composite structure and five-blade bearingless rotor. The targeted fly-away unit cost of the helicopter is $14.7 million, excluding its LHTEC T800-801 turboshafts. Low observability Arguably the helicopter's biggest discrimi nators are its low-observable (LO) design, network centric integration and low sup port costs. "Simply put, Comanche is the most survivable air vehicle for the army," 92 12-18 JUNE 2001 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL www.flightinternational.cofn
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