Feb 16 2015

US Naval Helicopter Training: Going Vertical! Posted 9 years 65 days ago ago by Admin

 

Naval aviation has a long and rich history. But it was not until nearly 40 years after its birth that helicopters and their pilots began their contributions to its heritage. On 10 June 1943, Lieutenant Commander Frank A. Erickson, USCG, proposed that helicopters be developed for anti-submarine warfare: “not as a killer craft but as the eyes and ears of the convoy escorts.” To this end, he recommended that helicopters be equipped with radar and dunking sonar. The Navy ordered and received its first helicopter a mere few months later in October 1943. It was a Sikorsky YR-4B (Navy designation HNS-1) accepted at Bridgeport, Connecticut, following a 60-minute test flight by Lt. Cmdr. Erickson, and then delivered to NAS Patuxent River, Maryland.

Since that time, the mission sets have broadened and the aircraft have become exponentially more complex and capable. Whether transporting clean water and relief supplies into an earthquake-ravaged nation, performing medical evacuations to an aircraft carrier, moving supplies between a carrier and support ship, or deploying a torpedo against an enemy submarine, helicopters in America’s Navy are in action around the globe. Regardless of the mission, each deployed aircraft utilizes state-of-the-art computer, sonar, radar, and air-to-ground weapon technology. Today, helicopters and tilt-rotors have become an indispensable component of naval operations with 55% of all naval aviators being rotary-wing pilots.

An Aging Fleet

In order to sustain the tremendous capability it provides in its helicopter fleet, the Navy produces approximately 500 helicopter pilots per year. For nearly 35 years, the Navy’s primary helicopter trainer has been the TH-57 (Bell 206). Believe it or not, many of the early trainers are still in service today. Systemically, the training fleet and structure for training helicopter pilots is just old. Over the decades, it has had to adapt three different models of aircraft (TH-57B-C-CNVG) in order to train helicopter pilots. Although pilots are safely trained, the age of the fleet combined with several models can create many inefficiencies in the system, e.g., training flights being cancelled due to aircraft breaking down.

The current modern U.S. Navy helicopters are the Sikorsky SH-60 (Seahawk) and the MH-53E (Sea Dragon). The U.S. Marines fly the H-1Y, AH-1Z, and  the MV-22. Given the complexity of these aircraft and their systems, there seems to be a disconnect between the less sophisticated training aircraft and the actual aircraft that naval helicopter pilots will fly once in the fleet.

In an era of ever tightening federal budgets, the Navy, like other U.S. military branches, is faced with upgrading their training fleets to meet modern day demands, while at the same time doing so as cost effectively as possible. As current training aircraft age, the costs to maintain them rise exponentially as each decade goes by. It is estimated that the Aircraft Conditional Inspections (ACI) that occur at the depot level every five years cost between $750,000 and $1.2 million. The current budgeted amount for each ACI (performed by L3) is $618,000. Since many of these aircraft are over 30 years old, the cost curve is expected to steepen even more as they age. Essentially, as the aircraft get older and the cost of the ACI continues to climb, the Navy will essentially be paying the full value of the TH-57 several times over.

Trends and Opportunity

The U.S. comprises 35 to 40 percent of the world’s military budgets. AgustaWestland has a clear goal of breaking into the U.S. military helicopter market and the recent Request for Information (RFI) issued by the Navy for a new single-engine, IFR-certifiable trainer looks like a real opportunity for the helicopter manufacturer. AgustaWestland North America CEO Robert LaBelle says, “Based on the RFI put out by the U.S. Navy, it would seem that the AW119 Kx is a perfect fit and would be an excellent primary training helicopter for the U.S. Navy.”

It seems that the military has moved away from long-range developments that require designing a brand new aircraft from scratch in order to meet some future need (think Comanche). Instead, it has shifted its focus to more immediate short-term needs. The trend of utilizing civil airframes as military platforms is becoming more commonplace in the global market. Not only is money saved, but also since civilian aircraft are FAA certified, they often meet or exceed military requirements from a flight standards perspective. This is not new territory for AgustaWestland; they have many aircraft in operation by foreign militaries.

Comprehensive Plan

It’s pretty much agreed that if the U.S. Navy does nothing, it will be ‘nickel and dimed’ to death by rising budget overages required to maintain its aging aircraft fleet. Outright selling the U.S. Navy a hundred aircraft to replace the outdated TH-57s is an option, but AgustaWestland believes such a sale would be shortsighted and put the Navy right back into their current predicament in a couple of decades. AgustaWestland would prefer the Navy move in the direction of a “Full Services” contract (proposed by the Navy in the RFI) which uses a multifaceted approach rather than one of mere acquisition. The company believes that it, along with the right partners, can help the Navy completely flatten its advanced helicopter training program cost curve over approximately the next decade by providing aircraft, maintenance, training, and simulation as one comprehensive package.

Events and initiatives this fall provided a backdrop for bringing the aircraft, and this full service solution, straight to the instructors training the next generation of Naval Aviators. The 18th annual Naval Helicopter Association Gulf Coast Fleet Fly-In, held in October at NAS Whiting Field near Pensacola, FL, brought together Navy, Marine, and Coast Guard aircraft, along with several civil OEM models for aircraft demonstrations and professional educational forums.

The event was a prime opportunity to join the AgustaWestland team for a flight in the AW119 Kx and to experience the capabilities of the aircraft that will allow it to be viable option in the selection for the Navy’s next-generation advanced helicopter trainer. Further introducing the AW119Kx to the U.S. Navy training community as a whole at the Blue Angels Homecoming Air Show, where thousands of attendees got a glimpse of the aircraft on display during the three-day event in Pensacola.

Augmenting AgustaWestland’s approach to provide government customers with detailed information about the AW119 Kx as an advanced helicopter trainer is a microsite, www.AdvancedHelicopterTrainer.com, and marketing initiatives that include showcasing the aircraft to U.S. Navy and Department of Defense decision makers in 2015.

Proof of Concept

Another U.S. military branch has proven the concept. The U.S. Air Force has an Initial Flight Screening Program (IFS) in Pueblo, Colorado, which every potential Air Force pilot must attend. The IFS program began operations in 2006 and is under the cognizance of the Air Force's 306th Flying Training Group of the Air Education and Training Command. Doss Aviation, a civilian company under contract with the USAF, conducts flight screening for 1,300 to 1,700 USAF officers annually. The company provides complete services, including aircraft, maintenance, instructors, training facilities, and lodging for IFS candidates.

Potential Benefits for the Navy

AgustaWestland’s proposed ‘turnkey’ plan appears it could benefit the Navy in several ways, including:

Predictability – The Navy will be able to more accurately forecast their output with respect to financial obligations. As stated earlier, procurement is an option. However, that requires a massive amount of capital outlay on the front end. In a service plan there would be no additional operating costs above current levels and the Navy could slide right into new, modern day aircraft.

Efficiency – According to AgustaWestland, the AW119 Kx is a more capable aircraft than the current trainer in many ways: safety, power, range, avionics and so forth. It believes that hour for hour, students will achieve a higher volume and quality of training per sortie.

Relevancy – Perhaps most importantly is the question of relevancy. Currently most every fixed- and rotary-winged naval airframes have transitioned to glass cockpits. Even the Navy’s primary fixed-wing T6 trainer utilizes digital displays for performance and flight information. Yet, the TH-57 is still using antiquated round gauges and instruments. Currently, it is possible for a naval aviator to be trained in the T6 trainer with glass cockpit, and then move into a larger fixed-wing, glass cockpit aircraft. Then if the aviator is selected to fly helicopters, he or she must regress back to a non-glass environment while training in the TH-57. To add insult to injury, once leaving primary helicopter training, the pilot will again go back to glass cockpits in the larger, more complex helicopters common in the fleet.

To cite an old cliché, it appears that the U.S. Navy’s 239 years of tradition has not been completely unimpeded by progress. From my vantage point, they are flying modern missions in modern aircraft that are equipped to handle complex missions in some of the most inhospitable environments known. Navy helicopter pilots are some of the best trained in the world. Looking toward 2016, if the U.S. Navy moves on the recent RFI, perhaps AgustaWestland can play a role in helping reconnect the naval training fleet with the rest of the fleet.