Little Bird Heli - U.S. The Army's fleet of elite A/MH-6 "Little Bird" special operations helicopters could be replaced by civilian helicopters in the coming years.
The Army may replace the Little Birds, which have been used for nearly 40 years by the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, winners of the newly armed reconnaissance helicopter competition. catching up? Only one of the two competing helicopters could transport troops, the main requirement to replace the Little Bird.
Little Bird Heli
In 1981, after a failed mission to free American hostages in Tehran, the US Army established Task Force 160, an elite helicopter unit designed to support special forces ground units. The unit received its first A/MH-6 helicopter in 1983; Since then, the "Little Birds" have continued to serve in aviation units. Small and agile, helicopters fly low to camouflage themselves and avoid enemy fire.
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The military flies two versions of the Little Birds. An attack variant, the AH-6 has a crew of two and is armed with a combination of M134 7.62-millimeter miniguns, 2.75-inch unguided rockets, Hellfire anti-tank missiles, and M230 30-millimeter autocannons.
The MH-6, meanwhile, is an unarmed assault vehicle designed to carry up to six Army Rangers, Navy SEALs or Delta Force troops. The MH-6 can land on streets and rooftops, and uses a quick-rope system to bring special operators to the ground quickly.
U.S. The Army is currently adopting the latest version of the Little Birds, the AH/MH-6 Block III, which includes a new six-blade rotor and better payload, speed and flight control.
Block III helos should last until the early 2030s, but only then are they planned to be replaced by the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) winner. It will emphasize armed helicopter range and reconnaissance capabilities. The Army will choose the winner in 2024 between the Sikorsky Raider X and the Bell 360 Invictus.
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The Raider X has a cargo/passenger compartment behind the cockpit that can carry troops or weapons. It makes a decent replacement for the A/MH-6 despite being a larger aircraft.
Both the Raider X and the Invictus would probably work well as replacements for the AH-6. The problem is that while the MH-6 is a draft and the Raider X has a passenger cabin for up to six soldiers, the Invictus doesn't have that passenger carrying capability.
If FARA wins the competition, the Raider X will replace the A/MH-6 fleet, but a lack of passenger space means the military will have to look elsewhere if the Invictus wins. That solution could be a vastly improved commercial airliner. With only 51 aircraft in the A/MH-6 fleet, developing an entirely new fighter is not an option.
Another possibility is for the military to ask aircraft manufacturer Boeing to develop the fourth-generation A/MH-6. Boeing is promoting the newly built Little Birds on its website, and the Block III aircraft uses an all-new airframe. Still, the military wants to move away from the 1960s-era aircraft, which it says is too old in terms of design.
Mh 6 Swat Little Bird
Little Bird is also slow by modern standards (126 knots), while Lockheed Martin claims the Raider X is capable of 220 knots.
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File:us Navy 090616 M 9917s 143 The Unmanned Little Bird (ulb) Helicopter, A Smaller Variant Of The Larger, Manned A Mh 6m Can Be Controlled By A Pilot Or Piloted Remotely.jpg
Special Operations Command is hungry for the speed improvements that will come with the military's future vertical-lift rotorcraft, but that could literally ditch its scrappy workhorse multirole helicopter. The relative speed of the M/AH-6 Little Bird will decrease if SOCOM is not confident that the aircraft will remain a viable capability after FVL aircraft come online in the 2030s.
The M/AH-6 has been continuously upgraded since its introduction in 1980, but it is already the slowest of the three aircraft flown by the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, known as the Night Stalkers. They use the larger MH-60M Black Hawk and MH-47G Chinook aircraft for long-range attack missions, but commando raids require the smaller, more agile Little Bird and close air support between landing sites in tight urban areas, dense forests and elsewhere. : Black Hawk cannot fit anywhere else. These types also work together in composite units created for each mission.
MH-6 Little Birds over Fort Campbell, Kentucky in 2018. Image used in the Special Operations Recruiting Battalion campaign. US Army photo by Staff Sgt. Iman Brodie-Chin
The Little Bird, the "street fighter" of the military rotary-wing universe, with its relatively slow speed, will become a more prominent liability with the arrival of the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) and Future Long Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA). online around 2034, SOCOM's rotary-wing aviation program executive director Jeffrey Downer said May 18.
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"Our little birds are flying at 90 knots," Downer said at the Special Operations Forces Industry Conference in Tampa, Florida. FARA “enables us to fly at twice the speed of 180 knots. The FLRAA requirement for that is 230 knots, which is significantly higher than the 110, 120 knots we're currently flying” in the MH-60M Black Hawk.
"My big concern is that we're upgrading our fleet to fly at 200-plus knots, and I have an aircraft that flies at 80-90 knots, so it won't be able to keep up," he added.
The Quail, sometimes called the "Killer Egg", comes in two configurations, although any H-6 in the 160's inventory can be converted for either use. The AH-6 performs attack and close air support missions with a variety of weapons. The MH-6 is an unarmed variant that carries troops internally and externally for a mission. SOCOM needs both types for future missions
The A/MH-6 fleet is in the Block 2.2 configuration, which includes survivability improvements including crashpy seats and fuel tanks. It now features a six-blade main rotor system for added efficiency and many other changes and improvements.
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Next year, SOCOM will relaunch the aircraft with an all-new zero-time aircraft manufactured by Boeing. The Block 3.0 upgrade program also includes a performance enhancement kit with a larger-diameter, composite rotor system that provides additional performance and "a new cockpit upgrade to give us the performance we have on a larger aircraft," Downer said. In 2024, improved electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) sensors will be deployed.
"We've received 11 capsules from the vendor, we've received the packages and now we've started the process of assembling those aircraft," Downer said.
SOCOM needs a small, nimble rotorcraft that can carry four to six soldiers and can transport and drop C-130 airlifters, Downer said. The Little Bird, with its 27-foot rotor diameter, is also ideal for launching attacks in confined urban areas where American commanders increasingly train and fight.
FARA's current concept aircraft, Bell's 360 Invictus conventional tandem-cabin helicopter and Sikorsky's Raider X complex hybrid design, are not guaranteed to fulfill the Little Bird's versatile role. Sikorsky says the Raider's weapons bay behind the cockpit can be reconfigured to carry troops, but the Bell Invictus can't. Both FARA competitors have a 40-foot rotor diameter, 10 feet wider than the M/A-H6, and may be too large for some SOF missions, Downer said. According to a detailed slide showing SOCOM's rotorcraft aviation modernization program, some variants of the M/AH-6 will remain in service through 2038 and beyond.
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"We've kind of pushed the boundaries of what we can get out of Little Bird, and we're trying to figure out what that next flight will look like," Down said. "We may continue to build that platform or there's another platform we're looking at."
In 2034, the same year it will deploy FARA, SOCOM will introduce a Block 4 configuration for the Little Bird or some variant of that aircraft. Downer told Defense News that the hybrid engine could increase Little Bird's speed by lowering the rotor blades during cruise. Drag to reduce flight, but SOCOM's aviation modernization schedule does not specify such an upgrade.
"We're talking 13 years later," Downer said. “We are working with the military and how many of these planes are we getting from them? But we know we don't expect to get 100 percent of the FARA fleet for this configuration because the 40-foot rotor is significantly different than the smaller rotors we have. We need it
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