Helicopter Tender UH

[FMolloy]

Here's the 'shoulds' for the UH:

1. The engines should be of modular design and should have full authority digital control (FADEC) with training modes.

2. The helicopter’s fuel system should have:
a. Pressure and gravity re-fuelling capability.
b. Fuel Cells with crashworthy properties. Tenderers should state the crashworthiness standard.
c. Fuel flow meter, or equivalent provisions.
d. Fuel Jettison capability.
e. In flight inter tank fuel transfer.

3. Defect and flaw tolerance in the rotor should be in accordance with FAR/JAR requirements. The rotor system should have a demonstrated ballistic tolerance.

4. There should be an ability to generate hydraulic power independently on the ground or if not, it must have capability of accepting a standard hydraulic ground rig.

5. The cockpit should be ergonomic and provide the pilot with a high degree of external visibility. There should be adequate secure stowage for flight documents and chart, including an illuminated, NVE compatible, IFR approach chart holder.

6. The cockpit displays should be based on the use of modern flat screen units, with adequate redundancy and flexibility to transfer display page formats from one display unit to any other.

7. The helicopter should be equipped with emergency egress lighting.

8. The tenderer should provide a mounting for a General Purpose Machine Gun of 7.62mm calibre on both sides of the fuselage. The mounting should be a removable part. Restrictions imposed on the operation of the sliding doors when the weapon is mounted and deployed, should be stated.

9. The helicopter should be equipped with weather radar.

10. The helicopter should be equipped with a wire strike protection system.

11. Tenderers should provide options on the capability of the helicopters to provide limited fire support, which should cover a broad spectrum of basic weapons.

[mutter nutter (again)]

Hopefully something we will see the Air corp doing here soon, Halo out of a blackhawk

[DeV]

There's another role!

[Goldie fish]

This months cosantoir has a further Article on the use of helis in Liberia,the article really pushing the need for proper Training on all sides with proper troop carrying helis,in the same way as it would be impossible to go overseas using APCs if you have never used one in training..

[barry sheehan]

goldie,first off thanks for emailing me the tender document.very interesting and if we get half the stuff thety are looking for then we will finally have some decent capabilities(limited i know).
second,before we deployed to kosovo this april we trained on helidrills with the a111 in the glen.fyi.:-patriot:

[FSG]

they should buy some secound hand hueys and reinforce the shell with a differant more bullet proof material cause thats a sexy chopper

[B Inman]

they should buy some secound hand hueys and reinforce the shell with a differant more bullet proof material cause thats a sexy chopper

Have you ever heard the rotor noise from a huey.. Italair used a variant of the Huey in Lebanon and you could hear them about 5 minutes before they arrived.


Adding more armour increases weight and reduces performance.

[FMolloy]

they should buy some secound hand hueys and reinforce the shell with a differant more bullet proof material cause thats a sexy chopper

Luckily 'sexiness' was not part of the competition criteria

[Goldie fish]

As Billy Joel once said about the Viet Cong, "they heard the hum of the motors,they counted the rotors,and waited for us to arrive....and we would all go down together..."

[ZULU]

Might be of interest to people

..

LUH Takes More Hits

http://www.defensetech.org/

Another excellent dispatch from DT friend, Bob Cox, who's a top contributor to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's new Sky Talk blog and a veteran aerospace reporter for them...


Pentagon weapons testers are not overly impressed with the Army's new light utility helicopter, the UH-72A Lakota, which is very similar to the Eurocopter EC-145.

In a recently issued report, the Director of Operational Test and Evaluation said that while the new helicopters can probably serve fine as the equivalent of a small pickup truck they're not well suited to tougher tasks, such as carrying two critically injured patients - one of the Army's requirements.

The UH-72A is intended primarily for use by the National Guard and stateside Army units as a utility aircraft, meaning carrying four or five people from point A to Point B. It's purpose is to allow the Army to keep its larger, more powerful Blackhawks for use by combat units. The report does indicate the Lakota is an improvement over the aging UH-1H Hueys and OH-58A/C Kiowa models the guard now has.

But the helicopter failed to meet key mission requirements specified by the Army, including having enough room to carry two critically ill patients with an attending medic. It also cannot lift the required weights, internally or externally, at high altitudes and hot weather. And the cabin air conditioning, which is different than that of the commercial EC-145, cannot keep temperatures low enough. The aircraft manual specifies a condition where the avionics may shut down after just 30-minutes if operated at too high a temperature.

Produced by Eurocopter/EADS, the UH-72A was selected by the Army a year ago after a competition involving four aircraft that also included entries from MD Helicopters, Bell Helicopter and AgustaWestland. American Eurocopter, the U.S. arm of the French-German consortium, is gearing up to build more than 300 of the new aircraft at a plant in Mississippi.

[Goldie fish]

Good thing we didn't pick that one then, though it was in the running.

[thebig C]

Funny thing how on those rare occasions when a US military contract goes to a non-US firm, there always seem to be problems...

The EC-145 can carry two stretchers and an attendant. Why was the air-conditioning unit changed? Is it an American unit that's causing the problem?

Never underestimate the power and influence of the US military contractors' lobby.

[thebig C]

..

I saw another version of that report where the issue was not the UH-72A couldn't carry two stretchers, but it didn't allow for the attendant(s) to provide care during the flight to two critically injured/ill patients. Apparently this requirement was not specified by the US Army.