December 17, 2008:
The U.S. Army has
ordered another 39 UH-72A "Lakota" transport helicopters, bringing
the total ordered to 123. All this began as a side effect of the cancellation
of the Comanche helicopter in 2004. That happened because Comanche was seen as
too expensive and complex for army needs. There followed the adoption of two
commercial helicopters, to take up the slack. The 2.8 ton ARH-70 (a militarized
Bell-407), was to replace the elderly OH-58D scout helicopter, while the 3.6 ton
UH-72A (a militarized EC145) would supplement the UH-60 for transportation and
other jobs, and replace many of the UH-1s now being phased out of reserve
units.
In both cases, much was made of how
quickly these two birds could be obtained, because both were
"off-the-shelf", and would be using existing military equipment. The adaptation and integration went ahead
without a hitch on the UH-72A, which costs about $6 million each (for a buy of
322 helicopters). The UH-72A already had many satisfied civilian users,
including many police organizations.
Last year, the first six UH-72 were
delivered to equip the Air Ambulance Detachment at the National Training Center
in Fort Irwin, California. That's in the desert, so the UH-72As got a workout
in hot and high conditions, and use by combat veterans. Civilian users had not
exposed the EC145 to such conditions, so it was not shocking to discover that
more air conditioning was needed. Both the crew compartment (and all those
electronics), and the passenger compartment got hot and stuffy after a few
hours in desert Summer conditions. Also, as expected, carrying capacity in hot
and high conditions was a bit less than
expected. Medical personnel also found that, while you could treat two badly
injured stretcher patients on paper, in practice it was too crowded. The
passenger compartment could be reconfigured a bit to ease up on this problem.
The specification did not call for there to be space for two critically injured
patients, but the army medics pointed out that this was often what had to be
done. That's because, if you have two critically wounded troops, and the
helicopter can carry them, the medics will take two. With critically wounded
soldiers, every minute counts.
The UH-72A met all specifications, but
the specs themselves don't always address every eventuality. That's normal, and
the UH72A is, so far, considered a success. The ARH-70 was cancelled earlier
this year, because the manufacturer was not able to successfully make the
modifications necessary to convert an off-the-shelf helicopter to a military
one.