Gearing up for the next generation of air combat helicopter
14 July 2016
An update from Sikorsky reveals that the $1.2bn programme to replace the US Air Force's rapidly ageing HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopters is progressing well. The contract signed in 2014 will see the delivery of HH-60W designed for critical combat search and rescue and personnel recovery operations for all US military services. Claire Apthorp caught up with the project to get a glimpse of the final product and find out what it can do.
Personnel recovery from the battlefield is a mission that the US military takes very seriously. 'No man left behind' is a motto not only rolled out in the films, it is a tenet that the military will devote almost limitless resources to in order to deliver on and bring its soldiers out of harm's way.
For the past three decades the mission of extracting personnel from the battlefield under stressful conditions for the US Air Force (USAF) - and conducting search and rescue operations - has been fulfilled by the HH-60G Pave Hawk. With this fleet now ageing and in need of replacement, the air force is running the Combat Rescue Helicopter (CRH) programme, under which it will procure the HH-G60's successor.
http://www.army-technology.com/features/featuregearing-up-for-the-next-generation-of-air-combat-helicopter-4939223/READ MORE
