U.S. Army's 'Bridge' is Modernization, Unmanned Teaming

Modernization and manned-unmanned teaming (MUM-T) are the way forward for U.S. Army aviation as the funding-constrained service awaits a next generation helicopter fleet. The Army’s Fiscal Year 2016 budget proposal prioritizes modernization of its Apache, Black Hawk and Chinook helicopters to support its planned aviation restructuring initiative (ARI), a reorganization of current assets that involves a helicopter swap with the Army National Guard.

The ARI, which calls for the Guard to transfer its Apaches to active-duty Army units and the Army to send some Black Hawks to the Guard, has proven controversial, and awaits the findings of a National Commission on the Structure of the Army that Congress established in legislation last year. However, one aspect of the ARI is progressing, as the Army retires its fleet of Bell OH-58 Kiowa Warrior armed reconnaissance helicopters. In their absence, the service will emphasize MUM-T operations combining AH-64D/E Apache attack helicopters with MQ-1C Gray Eagle and other unmanned aircraft.

“As we divest the Kiowa Warriors as part of the aviation restructuring initiative, [the] manned-unmanned capability is a bridging strategy,” said Col. Jeff White, Army Training and Doctrine Command capability manager for reconnaissance and attack. “We feel it augments the reduction of the Kiowa Warriors.” Apache crews already receive full-motion video from unmanned aircraft; now they are progressing to so-called level of interoperability (LOI) 3 and 4, the ability to first control the sensors and weapons on unmanned aircraft and then the aircraft itself, White said. With MUM-T “we’re just scratching the surface with that additional capability,” he told reporters at a Boeing-sponsored breakfast on January 28.

The Link 16 tactical datalink will be incorporated in AH-64E production lots 4, 5 and 6. “What that means to us from an operational perspective is that it gives us the ability to communicate with our joint platforms, whether it be JStars or AWACS, to acquire targets and to increase our situational understanding as we operate throughout the breadth and depth of the operational environment,” White said.

Other enhancements include the modernized day sensor assembly upgrade of the Apache’s nose-mounted target acquisition and designation system; a modernized radar frequency interferometer for passive location of radar emitters; and modified fire-control radar. Apaches will also be fitted with the new Joint air-to-ground Missile (JAGM) with dual mode millimeter-wave and semi-active laser seeker. On February 2, the Army issued a request for proposals for JAGM engineering and manufacturing development and low-rate initial production.

The Army is seeking a base budget of $126.5 billion in the Fiscal Year 2016 budget the Pentagon released on February 2. The budget assumes ongoing relief from sequestration budget reductions the 2011 Budget Control Act required, but later legislation mitigated. Continued sequestration would cut modernization accounts by 12 percent, the service said.

The Army’s request includes $5.7 billion to procure aircraft, including 70 UH-60M and 24 HH-60M Black Hawks, 64 remanufactured AH-64E Apaches and 39 new build and remanufactured CH-47F Chinooks. Overall, the service’s proposed $23 billion research, development and acquisition budget is $2.4 billion more than the amount Congress enacted in the current fiscal year. “It supports a higher level of aviation modernization, offsetting some of the inherent risk associated with the aviation restructure initiative,” said Davis Welch, Army deputy budget director.

The budget seeks $62.3 million for the Joint Multi-Role (JMR) program to demonstrate a radically improved medium-class air vehicle that would replace the UH-60 Black Hawk. In October, the service chose Bell Helicopter and a Boeing-Sikorsky team to build and fly demonstrators by 2017. The JMR effort is part of the Pentagon’s Future Vertical Lift program to develop a series of advanced rotorcraft that would begin replacing the Army’s helicopter fleet by 2030.