Army Brass Calls For New Airframe Within 20 Years
The Army needs to plan now for a replacement helicopter -- one
that has a longer range, is faster, can carry a bigger payload, is
more survivable and that has a reduced logistical footprint. Army
aviation leaders want such an airframe in less than 20 years -- and
they say the Army can't afford to back down from that goal.
"We know that the current fleet -- although great aircraft --
will at some point be obsolete," said Maj. Gen. Anthony G.
Crutchfield, commander, U.S. Army Aviation Center of Excellence. He
pegged an obsolesce date for the Longbow Block II Apache at fiscal
year 2040, for instance, and fiscal year 2035 for the CH-47
Foxtrot. "It sounds like a long way away, but it really isn't," he
said. "We have to have a method of looking out that far and making
sure that we have aircraft that will be relevant in this future
security environment. We have to set an aim point."
Crutchfield may as well have stomped his foot on the stage in
front of the more than 1,000 attendees at the opening of the 2011
Army Aviation Association of America's Annual Professional Forum
and Exposition in Tennessee, when he laid out that aim point to
field a future vertical-lift aircraft by 2030. "We can't move the
aim point," he reiterated. "2030 is the aim point. We're going to
set it, we're not going to waiver, our knees will not buckle and we
are going to field this aircraft. I don't want my grandchildren to
fly the 'Longbow Block LXXX' -- it's a great aircraft, but we need
technology to take us further into that future."
Comanche Helicopters
Acquisition practices, he said, could be part of ensuring that
timeline for a future vertical-lift aircraft -- to avoid practices
that contributed to the cancellation of the Comanche program in
August 2004. "We can't afford to cancel another program -- We can't
afford another Comanche," he said. While he acknowledged that had
the Comanche not been cancelled the Army "wouldn't be in the great
shape we are today," he did say that he disagrees with the
circumstances that led to its cancellation. "What I say is, in my
view, we can't afford to do it again," he said. "The future
vertical-lift aircraft is going to have to increase range, speed,
payload, survivability -- and it's got to reduce the logistical
footprint. I don't believe we can do all those things just by
incrementally improving our current fleet of aircraft. It's going
to have to be something new."
Crutchfield acknowledged the Army won't get "everything we want"
in a new airframe, but he did say "we have to get everything we
need. And I believe we need this ... if we set the marker and we
aggressively drive to it, we will make it happen. I know we can do
it. In fact, we have to do it."
That new aircraft was but one of Crutchfield's aim points.
Another was developing adaptable leaders in Army aviation. "We've
got to continue to build leaders that are adaptive, that are
tactically proficient as well as strategically proficient," he
said. Those leaders must be versatile, and prepared for an
"uncertain future environment," where the enemy will use everything
against them.
Participants In Army Aviation Symposium
"The future battlefield is unknown," he said. "One thing that is
for sure -- (in) our future fight we're going to have to fight
security operations, peace-keeping operations, counter insurgency
operations, and full-scale war -- the full spectrum. What are we
doing now to train, adapt and equip that future force?"
Currently at Fort Rucker, he said, future aviation leaders are
engaged in training under Army Learning Concept 2015, an effort
that, according to the Army Training and Doctrine Command, is
"leveraging technology without sacrificing standards," and that
"focuses on the opportunities presented by dynamic virtual
environments, by on-line gaming, and by mobile learning."
The learning environment for students at the Army Aviation
Center of Excellence, the Army Maneuver COE and the Army Fires COE,
for instance, is being enhanced by simulator training that ties
them together across three states to allow those Soldiers to work
together on operations training inside a virtual battle space.
Gen. James D. Thurman, commander, U.S. Army Forces Command,
served as the keynote speaker at the conference's opening. He asked
the aviation acquisition community and industry to work harder
together on improving acquisition in today's budget environment.
The acquisition community, he said, has done a good job in
supporting the war, but he called for "true acquisition reform,"
including aviation. "I am challenging both the industrial Army and
private industry to conduct after-action reviews," he said "To
understand what we have done over the course of the past few years,
what we need to do in the future, and how we can adapt to increase
efficiency of the system. We have to field platforms quicker, I
believe, and aviation systems."
Over the next 15 years, he said it is the Army's plan to build a
force of manned and unmanned aircraft "optimized for full-spectrum
operations." That effort, he told attendees, "amounts to a
significant challenge for the Army staff, industry and the
acquisition community."
Kiowa Warrior
The general also called for a replacement for the Kiowa Warrior.
"Our aviators and commanders are doing an outstanding job
maintaining and employing the Kiowa Warrior," he said, adding that
some units are putting as many as 100 hours a month on that
airframe. In fact, he said, all Army aircraft are accumulating
airframe hours at four or five times the desired rate. "I believe
they need a modernized scout helicopter as soon as they can get it
developed," Thurman said.
The general also pointed out that Army aviation gets some 21
percent of the Army's equipment budget. "You can count on pressure
for your funding," he said. "The only way you can get this done is
to achieve better efficiencies and work closer together as a team.
Army aviation and industry must focus every dollar to achieve the
best value."