ARMY AL&T C O N F E R E N C E C A L L


By 2025, the CH-47 Chinook helicopter will be 70 years old. While the aircraft is currently effective, future threats and operations may require additional or different systems. (U.S. Army photo by MAJ Dan Hart, 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry, Fort Wainwright, AK.)


Looking to the Future in Army


Aviation Science and Technology Robert E. Coultas and Kellyn D. Ritter


B


y 2025, the CH-47 Chinook will be 70 years old; the UH-60 Black Hawk, AH-64 Apache, and OH-58 Kiowa nearly 50 years old. These aircraft will still be flying with no new vertical-lift aircraft to take their place.


MG Anthony G. Crutchfield, Chief of the Army Aviation Branch and Commanding General (CG) of the U.S. Army Aviation Center of Excellence (USAACE), Fort Rucker, AL, has set 2030 as the “aim point” to start producing new vertical aircraft.


While current aircraft are still effective, future threats and operations may require additional or different systems, said MG William T. Crosby, Program Executive Officer Aviation. This means the Army must make a commitment to funding science and technology (S&T) for new aviation programs.


In separate sessions at the Association of the United States Army (AUSA) Institute of Land Warfare’s Army Aviation Symposium and Exposition in January, Crutchfield and Crosby discussed a path forward for Army aviation.


Crutchfield told the AUSA audience at National Harbor, MD, that Army offi- cials should not take the same approach to developing new aircraft as they did when the Army tried to develop the RAH-66 Comanche. Crutchfield compared the UH-1 program produc- tion timeline, started in 1952, with the Comanche program, started in 1982,


as an example of how moving the “aim point” affects aviation programs.


“It took eight years from requirements to production for the UH-1. About 16,000 UH-1s were produced, with about 7,000 serving in the Vietnam conflict. Overall, the UH-1 has been serving the Army for more than 45 years with some UH-1s still flying today,” Crutchfield said.


The Comanche, by contrast, was can- celed in 2004. “I think we kept moving the aim point [of the Comanche]. We were looking to field the perfect


APRIL –JUNE 2011 57


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88