31 août 2020 | International, Aérospatial

Airbus unveils B-model Lakota helos to enter US Army fleet next year

By:

WASHINGTON — The newest version of the UH-72B Lakota light utility helicopter will enter the U.S. Army fleet in 2021, aircraft manufacturer Airbus announced Aug. 28 at the National Guard Association of the United States virtual trade show.

Beginning with the newest orders placed in 2020, Airbus will deliver 17 UH-72Bs next year after supplying 460 UH-72As across the Army, Navy and National Guard. In September, the last UH-72A (the 463rd) will roll off the production line in Columbus, Missouri, according to the statement.

The “B” model will look distinctly different from the “A” variant. The aircraft is based off the Airbus H145 and will feature a Fenestron tail rotor, which the current A model does not have, according to Airbus. The B model will also have more powerful engine technology, “enhanced” controls and the Airbus Helionix avionics suite, the company said.

The new helicopter variant will go to the Army National Guard.

“Since we first began operations with the UH-72 Lakota some 15 years ago, this helicopter has been the workhorse of the Army and National Guard, saving lives, assisting in disaster relief, training thousands of pilots, and, more importantly, helping to protect our communities and our country,” Col. Calvin Lane, the Army's project manager for utility helicopters, said in the statement. “Procuring the UH-72B Lakota provides tremendous value with no research and development costs for the Army.”

Since the program's inception in 2006, the Army and National Guard have logged nearly 800,000 flight hours, serving as the initial entry rotary-wing training aircraft for the Army at Fort Rucker, Alabama, and has flown search and rescue, medical evacuation and disaster relief missions as well counter-drug operations at the Southwest border.

The Army chose to make the Lakota the primary training helicopter and retire its TH-67 aircraft when it restructured its entire aviation fleet in 2013. The decision met some resistance. Several companies like Bell Helicopter and AgustaWestland were hoping at the time to sell military training helicopters to several armed services, including the Army.

AgustaWestland, a Leonardo subsidiary, filed a lawsuit four years ago in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims over the Army's plan to buy 16 of the aircraft for the training fleet. The court ruled in favor of AgustaWestland, and the Army was barred from buying the Lakotas. But the U.S. Court of Appeals overturned the lower court's decision in early 2018, allowing the service to move forward in procuring Lakotas.

https://www.defensenews.com/land/2020/08/28/airbus-unveils-b-model-lakotas-will-enter-us-army-fleet-in-2021/

Sur le même sujet

  • Defense Department Seeks ‘Rapid Cloud Migration’ Ideas for MilCloud

    4 septembre 2018 | International, C4ISR

    Defense Department Seeks ‘Rapid Cloud Migration’ Ideas for MilCloud

    BY FRANK KONKEL MilCloud 2.0 is about to host a lot more data, and the Defense Department wants ideas for how to get it there faster. The Defense Department's technical arm wants to see what capabilities exist in the marketplace to improve the migration of data and applications to milCloud 2.0, the Pentagon's on-premise cloud. On Wednesday, the Defense Information Systems Agency issued a request for informationto industry seeking input on “rapid cloud migration” as it aims to understand capabilities relevant to “automated cloud migration techniques.” The RFI, which does not constitute a solicitation but could lead to one-on-one discussions with vendors, comes three months after Pentagon memo directed all “fourth-estate” defense agencies to migrate all data and applications to milCloud 2.0 by 2020. In the interim, the Office of the Department of Defense Chief Information Officer had planned to coordinate with affected agencies, including DISA, to plan their cloud migrations. MilCloud 2.0 went live earlier this year as part of a three-year, $500 million contract won by CSRA, which has since been purchased by defense contractor General Dynamics. The RFI makes clear the Pentagon's current migration strategy, which includes “manual cloning and conversion of server images, which are then provisioned, into the new cloud environment, or provisioning, building and configuring applications on virtual servers from scratch,” is not sufficient. “This RFI seeks migration solutions that can accurately duplicate the suite of servers used with an application from their current environment into a cloud environment built on Apache CloudStack technology and KVM hypervisor,” the RFI states. “The scope of duplication includes all applications used with the system, configuration of network and network security controls when proper APIs are exposed, and identification of interactions within the application system and to external systems when needed network traffic is made available for analysis.” Options, the RFI says, could include the “use of vendor-provided tools or analytic capabilities if packet captures, or other network monitoring information.” Industry responses must be received by Sept. 10. https://www.defenseone.com/technology/2018/08/defense-department-seeks-rapid-cloud-migration-ideas-milcloud/150934/

  • BAE Systems to supply US Army with jam-resistant navigation tech

    1 octobre 2023 | International, Aérospatial

    BAE Systems to supply US Army with jam-resistant navigation tech

    The cards were previously procured through “external contracts" that complicated acquisition, according to PEO IEW&S.

  • Cymat Announces Purchase Order for Military Underbelly Blast Protection Kits from Asian Military Contractor

    21 septembre 2021 | International, Terrestre

    Cymat Announces Purchase Order for Military Underbelly Blast Protection Kits from Asian Military Contractor

    Cymat Technologies Ltd. (TSXV: CYM). Cymat Technologies ("Company" or "Cymat") is pleased to announce the receipt of an order for two underbelly blast protection kits from an Asian military vehicle manufacturer. These kits will be used to complete final product testing by the vehicle manufacturer's customer.

Toutes les nouvelles