The US Army’s premier aviation force is moving forward with its ongoing effort to upgrade the fleet of Boeing A/MH-6 Little Bird helicopters.
The 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, which provides rotary-wing aviation support to the Pentagon’s various commando units, also still plans to field Bell’s next-generation tiltrotor in the 2030s.
Speaking at annual SOF Week conference in Tampa, Florida on 8 May, the various portfolio managers from the US Special Operations Command (SOCOM) rotary-wing procurement office outlined their modernisation plans for the next 15 years.
“We are resetting the entire fleet of helicopters,” says Paul Kylander, SOCOM’s A/MH-6 product manager.
That reset, which is already underway, will see both the attack- and utility-variant Little Birds upgraded to the Block 3 standard, which includes a new zero-hour fuselage, a modernised cockpit and weight reductions to the fuel tanks and external attack/assault planks.
The modernised Little Birds will carry the designation A/MH-6R.
SOCOM expects to complete fielding of the new AH-6Rs by 2031. The new Block 3 fuselages come with a 15-year service life.
Planning documents shared at SOF Week by SOCOM’s rotary-wing procurement office indicate the 160th will continue to operate the Little Bird fleet into the 2040s.
A subsequent Block 4 upgrade is also in the works, although the capabilities targeted for that were not identified.
In February, Boeing said it would likely end production of the iconic rotorcraft when the company completes delivery of a 2022 order from Thailand covering eight AH-6s. Bangkok is only the second overseas customer for the Little Bird, with the first being Saudi Arabia, which has 24 examples in service.
Shortly after it finishes the Block 3 improvements for the Little Bird fleet, SOCOM will start fielding the Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) to the army’s elite aviators.
Development of that next-generation Bell tiltrotor is being spearheaded by the US Army’s conventional aviation force, which is seeking to field a new aircraft capable of providing high-speed, long-range insertion for ground combat troops.
The programme aims to deliver a generational improvement over the army’s current assault aircraft, the Sikorsky UH-60M Black Hawk.
While the army expects to deliver the first operationally-configured FLRAA tiltrotor by 2030 or sooner, SOCOM will wait until the mid-2030s to field the as-of-yet unnamed aircraft to the 160th.
Although the special operations aviators are taking a back seat when it comes to FLRAA procurement, SOCOM’s future vertical lift product manager says the new tiltrotor is being designed to be easily adaptable for the needs of special operations.
“We are very tightly nested with big army,” says Lieutenant Colonel Cameron Keough, using the special operations community’s colloquialism for the conventional army.
Keough notes that SOCOM has worked closely with Bell and the regular army aviation procurement office to ensure the standard FLRAA airframe has the required power and physical space to accommodate extra mission systems required for special operations use.
This includes features like an aerial refuelling probe and terrain-following radar for better performance at night and in low-altitude flight.
“Every FLRAA that gets built for fielding is going to have provisions for us to put our things on the aircraft, which is a huge cost reduction for us,” Keough says.
By contrast, SOCOM carries out extensive aftermarket modifications to the standard UH-60 to create the MH-60 variant flown by the 160th as both an assault troop carrier and heavily-armed gunship platform.
That costly and intensive process even requires substituting more-powerful turboshaft engines to compensate for all the extra weight, a significant additional expense for a small fleet of rotorcraft.
Keough also reveals that SOCOM plans to integrate the new GE Aerospace T901 turboshaft engine onto its MH-60s, with the goal of achieving commonality and more-efficient sustainment, as well as improved performance.
Sikorsky has already begun that process for standard UH-60Ms, of which the army inventory includes some 2,300 examples.
