Boeing’s [BA] AH-6 aircraft has flown its Voluntary Flight Demonstration for the Army’s potential Armed Aerial Scout (AAS) program, which the Army is considering instead of upgrading the Bell Helicopter [TXT] OH-58D Kiowa Warriors, officials said.
“Boeing is pleased to demonstrate the capabilities of our AH-6 Light Attack/Reconnaissance aircraft and to continue discussions with the United States government on future development plans during this Voluntary Flight Demonstration,” said Mike Burke, Boeing director of Attack Helicopters Business Development. “We believe our aircraft–the AH-6–is a viable candidate to satisfy the Armed Aerial Scout requirements for the U.S. Army.”
To date, candidates are being considered from Boeing, the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co. (EADS) North America, Bell Helicopter, Finmeccanica’s AgustaWestland, and Sikorsky [UTX].
The Army’s experienced test pilots have a test card with a number of parameters they want to see the aircraft fly, Burke said. The flights take up to two hours and collect performance data in different regimes.
One of the experimental test pilots is an Apache Block III aviator, who saw the AH-6 helicopter and was familiar with it, said Brad Rounding, Boeing manager of AH-6 Business Development.
“Over next few months, the Army will compare data from our demo and others and then have informational decision acquisition board in December, where they will brief or present the data that they’ve collected that will lead to a Defense Acquisition Board in March in which the Army and DoD decide to move forward or not,” Burke said.
The AH-6 business development demonstration aircraft is on display here at the Boeing booth during the Association for the United States Army annual conference.
At this point in time, the company is developing its first customers, including developing a foreign military sales development prototype with unique equipment for a customer. The international version of the aircraft is the AH-6i.
The basic six-rotorblade AH-6 has the latest fully integrated cockpit, patterned after Boeing’s Apache Block III. It has the same avionics and open architecture, he said. In 2009 when the architecture was first developed, 83 percent of the first installed software was directly ported from the Apache Block III, though now there are changes and improvements that Apache doesn’t have.
The government is interested in sharing technologies, Rounding said, as it saves time and money, for example in aviator training if systems are similar or familiar, and also for maintainers who can work on AH-6 and Apache with no retraining.
The primary advantage of open systems is that improvements can be very quickly integrated into the architecture, Burke said. Thus, if the Army buys AH-6 and Block III Apache it will be able to maintain the relevancy of both aircraft over time very easily and quickly.
Rounding pointed out that it’s the same team members developing technology for the Apache and who work on the AH-6 design.
“The AH-6 in our assessment…is that this aircraft has lower operational support costs than any other aircraft,” Burke said.
Boeing feels that the AH-6 already fits most of the requirements that will be issued for the AAS Request for Proposals should the Army decide to move forward with the program.