Role Model MH-60R Modernisation in Detail
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WWW.ROTORHUB.COM VOLUME 36 NUMBER 1 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017 DEFENCE HELICOPTER Role model MH-60R modernisation in detail EYES ON THE SKY PLA PROGRESS TARGETING STRATEGIES Tracking technology Chinese helicopter programmes Missile options DH-01-17_OFC.indd 1 1/13/2017 1:34:56 PM DH-01-17_IFC.indd 2 1/13/2017 1:36:44 PM CONTENTS Editor Tony Skinner 3 EDITORIAL COMMENT FEATURE [email protected] State of the nation 27 EYES ON THE SKY Tel: +44 (0)20 3179 2594 Widely used by commercial operators, Deputy Editor Helen Haxell 4 NEWS automatic helicopter flight tracking technology [email protected] Tel: +44 (0)20 3179 2597 • Myanmar Air Force bulks up on helicopters is increasingly emerging into the military Asia-Pacific Editor • Germany to deploy Tiger and NH90 to Mali domain. Gordon Arthur • RAF Kabul crash cause revealed [email protected] • Thai Army puts faith in Leonardo FEATURE Staff Reporters Beth Maundrill • Serbia signs for nine H145Ms 31 TARGETING STRATEGIES [email protected] Grant Turnbull A number of the world’s militaries are on the [email protected] FEATURE cusp of more advanced attack capabilities as Contributors 8 MODEL MASTERPLAN their helicopter fleets adopt the latest in missile Pieter Bastiaans, Gerrard Cowan, Peter Donaldson, Jim Dorschner, The USN’s MH-60R programme is looking ahead technology. Nicholas Fiorenza, Scott R Gourley, Alexander Mladenov, Sompong to mid-life upgrades and an eventual successor Nondhasa, David Oliver, Richard Scott, to help the platform move with the times. Barry D Smith, Babak Taghvaee, Alan FEATURE Warnes, Andrew White, Jim Winchester 37 PARALLEL LINES Production and Circulation Manager FEATURE China appears to have developed two David Hurst [email protected] 14 INDIGENOUS DRIVE helicopters simultaneously, taking both the Z-10 Tel: +44 (0)20 3179 2579 China has struggled under Western embargoes and Z-19 models into service within a short time Sub-editors to raise its rotary game and is casting off foreign of each other. Adam Wakeling, Jenny Wright assistance to produce models domestically. Graphic Designer Kam Bains TAIL SPIN Commercial Manager FEATURE 40 MISSILE MANAGEMENT Anthony Wilkinson [email protected] 22 TAKING BACK THE NIGHT Col David Warnick, US Army Project Manager Tel: +44 (0)20 3179 2575 Developments in NVGs have allowed African, for Joint Attack Munition Systems within Junior Sales Executive Eastern European and Central American the Program Executive Office Missiles and Lance Golding [email protected] countries to reap the benefits of the technology Space, speaks to Beth Maundrill about the Tel: +44 (0)20 3179 2599 once enjoyed only by Western nations. Joint Air-to-Ground Missile programme. Editor-in-Chief Tony Skinner Head of Publishing Sales Mike Wild Managing Director Darren Lake Chairman Nick Prest Subscriptions Annual rates start at £65 Tel: +44 (0)20 3179 2592 Email: [email protected] Web: shop.shephardmedia.com Defence Helicopter is published six times per year by The Shephard Press Ltd, Saville Mews, 30 Saville Road, London, W4 5HG, UK. Subscription rates start at £65. Air Business Ltd is acting as mailing agent. Articles and information contained in this publication are the copyright of The Shephard Press Ltd and may not be reproduced in any form without the Page 37 written permission of the publishers. Print by Buxton Press, Derbyshire, UK Front cover: An MH-60R Seahawk drops a pallet of supplies on the flight deck of the LCS USS Fort Worth. (Photo: USN) © The Shephard Press Ltd, 2017 ISSN 1741-6043 The Shephard Press Ltd Saville Mews, 30 Saville Road, London, W4 5HG, UK SUBSCRIPTIONS Tel: +44 (0)20 3179 2570 9 industry-specific magazines (print and digital) 14 definitive data sets/handbooks (print and digital) Shephard Plus online – in-depth news, analysis and intelligence. To subscribe to our print and online services visit www.shephardmedia.com WWW.ROTORHUB.COM VOLUME 36 NUMBER 1 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017 DEFENCE HELICOPTER WWW.ROTORHUB.COM 1 DH-01-17_p01_Contents.indd 1 1/13/2017 2:56:06 PM Shepard Media Full Page Ad_1.21.2016.pdf 1 1/21/2016 4:58:31 PM OVER 50 YEARS OF SCOUT ATTACK DOMINANCE The MD 530F, an evolution of the iconic OH-6 Cayuse light observation helicopter, is the latest addition to MD Helicopters’ fleet of purpose built scout attack helicopters. The armed MD 530F is world-renowned as a proven aircraft and performs exceptionally well in hot and high conditions. The MD 530F enables combat commanders to effectively control the battlespace to accomplish the most demanding of mission requirements. C M Y CM MY CY CMY K MADE IN AMERICA | MDHELICOPTERS.COM DH-01-17_p02_MDH.indd 2 1/13/2017 4:23:29 PM COMMENT Tony Skinner, Editor State of the nation Recent global events have cast the reduction immediate spotlight are: the VH-92A in military spending across the Western world Presidential Helicopter Replacement In the next issue of the past six or seven years in a stark light. programme; the USAF’s Combat Rescue Regarded as an obvious necessity by Helicopter and UH-1N replacement; and the • US Army upgrades various governments as they attempted to get longer-term Future Vertical Lift initiative. • Scout/light attack their houses in order after the financial crisis, Over the next 12 months, competing • Self-protection the subsequent erosion of military capability teams are expected to fly their vision of the brought about by deferred or cancelled next generation of rotorcraft under the Joint • Avionics defence procurements has proven a risky Multi-Role Technology Demonstration – Bell choice, following the posturing of China and with its V-280 tiltrotor and Sikorsky-Boeing Russia and enduring insurgencies in with the SB>1 coaxial compound. several new requirements, with little detail on Afghanistan and Iraq. Internationally, several key procurements how these would be taken forward. Helicopter Should the defence budget floodgates will need to advance during 2017 to meet executives in Poland will be hoping for some open around the world in 2017, however, the the inescapable deadline of legacy aircraft clarity from the government in 2017, as well trends evident across the military rotorcraft going out of service. as several other Eastern European countries sector in recent years are unlikely to change An RfP is expected to be issued by the with pressing needs to replace Soviet-era any time soon. German government for its heavy vertical rotorcraft. An under-investment in rotorcraft R&D has lift requirement. Berlin is considering both Elsewhere, modernisation continues apace meant the lion’s share of operations are still the Sikorsky CH-53K and Boeing CH-47 in many countries that have smaller overall being carried out by helicopters of 1970s and Chinook. With the NH90 Sea Lion naval fleets or less constrained defence budgets, 1980s design, with technical capability gaps multirole helicopter currently being readied with several Middle Eastern nations in easily visible across the board. to replace the German Navy’s Sea King particular currently seeking further US-made In particular, degraded visual Mk 41 fleet, the type is also in the frame helicopters through the Pentagon’s FMS environments – a common theme across for potential future selection as a Sea Lynx mechanism. these pages – continue to hamper replacement. The first export contract for the Bell-Boeing operations, while newer technologies such For any ASW helicopter requirement, the V-22 tiltrotor is also advancing, with the initial as autonomous systems, the latest NH90 is likely to be up against the Leonardo fuselage for Japan currently on the production survivability suites and advances in avionics AW159 Wildcat, which the German Navy will line at Boeing’s Philadelphia facility. are far from being fully exploited. see up close and personal in 2017, when the Western manufacturers are unlikely to UK Royal Navy deploys the aircraft on board a have things all their own way in 2017, US initiatives German frigate in the Mediterranean. however. Russian Helicopters has been The US has a range of programmes to increasingly successful on the international address many of these shortfalls, which will Cancelled contract market, Korea Aerospace Industries is soon come under the control of the incoming In Poland, meanwhile, the government’s marketing its Surion internationally (in Trump administration, seemingly hell-bent on helicopter renewal strategy fell into farce conjunction with Airbus Helicopters) and re-evaluating the Pentagon’s flagship when it ended H225M contract talks with China’s domestic helicopter capability is now procurement programmes. Among the Airbus Helicopters in October 2016. The maturing to the point where it will become a rotorcraft projects that may fall under the defence ministry then promptly announced contender in certain markets. ▪ WWW.ROTORHUB.COM VOLUME 36 NUMBER 1 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017 DEFENCE HELICOPTER 3 DH-01-17_p03_Comment.indd 3 1/13/2017 1:42:33 PM NEWS Myanmar Air Force bulks up on helicopters On 22 August 2016, the air force officially Myanmar has been linked with a first export Photo: Myanmar Air Force welcomed two Y-8F-200W transport aircraft purchase of the Chinese-Pakistani JF-17 and ten Grob G 120TP trainers into service. fighter, although official confirmation has not In June 2015, the MAF received a batch of yet been made. The MAF anticipated receiving various helicopters, including one Mi-35P, at three Yak-130 advanced jet trainers by the end least three Airbus Helicopters AS365 Dauphin of 2016, and it is reported to be interested in 2s and three Bell 206 Jet Ranger IIIs. Also more Mi-17V-5s. commissioned were examples of the Doing business with the Myanmar military is Beechcraft 1900D and Grob G 120TP. a sensitive issue due to its human rights The Myanmar Air Force (MAF) inducted four The Dauphins were assigned to SAR, abuses and arms embargoes in force.