Defence Daily Industry

US Army in Flight on Production of (Re)New H-47 Chinooks

23-Apr-2009 17:18 EDT

Related Stories: Americas – Other, Americas – USA, Avionics, BAE, Boeing, Contracts – Awards, Contracts – Modifications, Europe – France, Europe – Other, FOCUS Articles, Forces – Special Ops, Helicopters & Rotary, New Systems Tech, Other Corporation, Protective Systems – Aircraft

CH-47Fs take off
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Trying to make sense of government releases and contracts is challenging at the best of times. Trying to make sense of defense-related contracts takes the challenge to a whole new level. Research quickly revealed that the scattered CH-47F contracts we’ve been seeing were part of a much larger effort to recapitalize America’s CH-47 Chinook helicopter fleet. DID’s FOCUS articles offer in-depth, updated looks at significant military programs of record; this is DID’s FOCUS Article for the CH-47F/MH-47G helicopter programs, in the USA and abroad.

While the forced re-compete of the HH-47’s $10-15 billion CSAR-X program win goes on, Boeing has completed operational testing of the CH-47F, and delivery orders continue for CH-47Fs and MH-47G Special Forces configuration helicopters. The USA expects to be operating Chinooks in their heavy-lift role past 2030, and the history and structure of that effort is detailed below.

The latest news involves an exercised option for more CH-47Fs, and successful fielding by the 82nd Airborne Division…

• The New Chinooks: CH-47F, MH-47G, HH-47 (Continue reading…)
• The US Army’s Acquisition Plan, Plus Global Events & Contracts [updated]
• Appendix A: Reconciling Previous Contracts and Numbers

BAE’s LROD Cage Armor

23-Apr-2009 16:07 EDT

Related Stories: Americas – USA, BAE, Contracts – Awards, New Systems Tech, Other Equipment – Land

RG-31, before
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Russian-designed RPG shoulder-fired rockets are a widespread threat in many parts of the world, including the conflict in Iraq. Though they are unguided, can be a bit tricky to aim, and have short range, their disadvantages are masked in the close-quarters reality of urban combat and other common modern battle zones. There are 3 standard approaches for protecting vehicles against incoming RPGs: (1) Heavy or layered armor the warhead can’t penetrate; (2) Reactive armor tiles that explode outward when hit, redirecting the warhead and/or dissipating the blast; and (3) “Cage armor” that either prevents the rocket’s piezo-electric “crush fuze” from detonating – or forces the warhead to detonate away from the armor underneath, ‘unfocusing’ its killer blast.*

The bad news is that providing enough steel cage armor can add a couple of tons to vehicle weight, and dual-warhead designs like the RPG-27 will defeat cage armor. At the moment, however, the most common threats involve RPG-7 single warhead variants, which are also produced in quantity by China (to Iran for use abroad) and by Iran (direct shipment to Iraq and Afghanistan).

Enter BAE Systems’ LROD, developed in response to a fast-response Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) program to provide RPG protection for Hummers and MRAP mine-resistant vehicles. This led BAE to ask if steel was really necessary – and the answer coming back from the US Army seems to be: no, as the number of vehicles using this armor widens…