By Ann Roosevelt
One of the Army’s newest UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters is on the way to Ft. Campbell, Ky., where the 4th Battalion, 101st Aviation Regiment, 159th Combat Aviation Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) is the first unit to receive them.
“The full battalion [30 aircraft] will be fielded by May of ’08,” Col. Ronald Lewis, brigade commander of the 159th Combat Aviation Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), told Defense Daily outside the Pentagon Nov. 14 just feet from the UH-60M and a UH-60L Black Hawk flown in for the day.
Produced by Sikorsky [UTX], the two Black Hawks emphasize how Army aviation is transforming and leveraging funds from the cancellation of the Boeing [BA]-Sikorsky RAH-66 Comanche helicopter in February 2004 (Defense Daily, Feb. 24, 2004, May 14, 2007).
In August 2006, Sikorsky delivered the first new-build UH-60M Black Hawk to the Army (Defense Daily, Aug. 1, 2006). When Comanche was cancelled, the Army said that would allow the Mike model program to be done five years faster.
Right now, the 101st has one low-rate initial production UH-60M Black Hawk.
The new Mike model will help the unit perform its missions better, Lewis said. “It’s going to give me a much more reliable fleet of Black Hawks in terms of maintenance. It’s going to provide my pilots a lot better survivability so that they can take care of the guys in the back and the guys on the ground with air assault, air movements, resupply. It’s going to provide me a great capability that’s kind of the cornerstone of my brigade.”
While the helicopter wings off to Ft. Campbell, Lewis heads off to the Sikorsky factory to talk to workers and see the full-rate production aircraft come off the line. He plans to tell workers how important their job is.
The UH-60M features an autopilot, a digital avionics suite with open architecture, improved situational awareness with an improved data modem, digital map, embedded GPS/Inertial navigation system and an active vibration control system–something that reduces fatigue for pilots and crew as well as components.
Other improvements include crashworthy external fuel tanks, better infrared suppression, an integrated Common Missile Warning System, and more powerful General Electric [GE] 701D engines.
After the rotors stopped turning, pilots and crew from the 101st took a close look at the new M that will be joining the battalion.
Lt. Col. James Benson, 4-101 Battalion commander, said the new M model will allow them to do their air assault mission better.
“The ultimate goal for us is to better provide capabilities for the soldier on the ground who’s in the fight, whether it’s inserting them, extracting them, taking them in, taking them out and just being able to supply any support we can to the ground soldier, is our ultimate end state,” he said.
Not only does the helicopter have better engines, better avionics, a completely automated flight control system that assists the pilot to fly the aircraft, reduces the workload, Benson said. He’s already flown the UH-60M at Ft. Campbell.
“One of the significant improvements of this aircraft is it has an integrated maintenance management system that constantly monitors systems on the aircraft and it leads us to a thing called condition-based maintenance where we only replace components when the monitoring systems on board tell us that its time to replace them,” he said.
4-101 Command Sgt. Maj. Randy Lange said the UH-60M will make it “a lot easier for my soldiers.”
One of the unique things about the Black Hawk is that the crew chiefs that maintain them also perform duties as a crew member.
“The integrated computer system onboard the aircraft [shows] the components that might be failing rather than us going through the paperwork troubleshoot something and run up the man-hours trying to find it when already the computer system on the aircraft can tell him what the problem is,” Lange said. The new integrated vehicle health management system also improves reliability and ease of maintenance.
Also looking over the M was Sgt. Charles Berry, crew chief from A Co. “Comancheros” 4-101, who will be on the flight down to Ft. Campbell.
While most of the attention goes to the digital cockpit, Berry said the maintenance burden will be eased by a less noticeable change: having a folding stabilator. The stabilator, which keeps the aircraft in the proper flight attitude, is located under the tail rotor. Previously, when combat units loaded the helicopters for transport, they had to remove the stabilator, something that took an hour and more. At the Army’s request, Sikorsky worked out a way to simplify the process: take two pins out, fold up the stabilator, and put the pins back in.
Another plus for Berry is the new crew chief’s station behind the pilot. The new chair moves back and forth so it can be adjusted for height and be more comfortable on long flights, rather than the fixed seat in previous models like the Lima Blackhawk just a few feet away.
Chief Warrant Officer 4 Jeff Gregg, 4-101 senior instructor pilot, said, “The biggest change for pilots coming from the L model Blackhawk will be the autopilot. “It’s huge to learn how we’re going to tactically employ these new systems specifically the autopilot. It’s going to be a challenge, it really is.”
When the 4-101 has its full battalion of UH-60Ms, the 101st will have two units of the Army’s most advanced helicopters, one of the Mike model Black Hawks and one of CH-47F Chinooks with the 7th Battalion, 101st Aviation Regiment, 159th Combat Aviation Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), produced by Boeing (Defense Daily, Aug. 15, 17).