The U.S. Army will seek a technical solution to help its helicopter pilots navigate in degraded visual environments (DVE)–a hazard it blames for causing nearly $1 billion in material costs since 2002. The service expects to issue a request for information (RFI) to industry this year as it undertakes a formal acquisition strategy to find an answer.
DVE incidents can be caused by blowing sand, dust, fog, smoke, snow, darkness and other conditions. The Army contends that 80 percent of its helicopter losses in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past decade were the result of non-hostile or non-combat factors that included DVE. Over the years, the service has explored different technologies to combat the problem, including millimeter wave radar, infrared imaging and laser detection and ranging.
At the Association of the U.S. Army conference in Washington, D.C. last month (October), Col. Mathew Hannah, project manager for aviation systems, described a developing acquisition strategy for a DVE/Brownout Rotorcraft Enhancement System (BORES). In addition to issuing an RFI, the Army will conduct a “users assessment” of existing technologies next spring at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona. The service plans to release a formal request for proposals to industry in FY2017.
UH-60 Black Hawks are the first helicopters the Army will emphasize for a DVE/BORES solution, followed by cargo helicopters including the CH-47 Chinook, and finally AH-64 Apache attack helicopters. Apache pilots already have some capability to navigate through obscurants and adverse weather using the helicopter’s nose-mounted target acquisition designation sight/pilot night vision sensor (TADS/PNVS) system.
An “analysis of alternatives” the Army completed late last year provided the service with direction to move forward with a DVE/BORES program, Hannah said. “Technology development over the last decade has been significant,” he explained. The “probability of detection has gotten much better.” The analysis indicated that the service should focus on three elements in developing a “DVE pilotage” solution–symbology and cueing systems; imaging sensors; and aircraft handling qualities to reduce pilot workload.
The users’ assessment at Yuma Proving Ground will take advantage of mounting hardware already fitted on a UH-60 Black Hawk, but the type of sensor evaluated will be less important than the user’s experience, Hannah said. “The real value of that information is taking pilots of various experience levels onto that sensor and seeing how they do. It’s more about the people than it is about the equipment for that particular user assessment,” he explained.
Asked if the Army will consider new technologies, Hannah said: “I can’t say what [the] technology will be two or three years from now, but I can say that our intent is to achieve DVE/BORES pilotage initially, and carry that same technology 360 [degrees] around the aircraft. It may be the same technology, but we’re open to some other technology development that happens over the next two years that leads us in a different direction.”
The service will develop an acquisition strategy and schedule for DVE/BORES in its next program objective memorandum, or POM, cycle. The plan is to brief the Army’s acquisition executive on the program in February. Once leadership approves it, the Army will provide a more specific schedule beyond the planned RFP release in 2017.
“Budget is always a consideration,” Hannah said. “We will be very aware of that fact and we will look for opportunities to reduce our costs. We want [the system] to be lighter than air, and we want it to be able to see like Superman. We will shoot for those goals and see what happens.”
