Land Warfare 2007: Boeing offers Chinook options

1 October 2007

By Gregor Ferguson

Boeing’s CH-47 Chinook medium lift helicopter has been in production continuously since the 1960s and will probably still be in service by 2050; there’s little doubt the Australian Army, which operates six CH-47Ds, will come back for more.

Boeing Integrated Defence Systems has managed to reduce the price of its evergreen CH-47 Chinook helicopter from US$40 million to US$28 million each over the past 10 years.

It is hoping this price reduction, the direct result of the company’s Lean Manufacturing initiative, will keep the aircraft in production for another 18 years and help persuade the ADF to double its Chinook fleet from six aircraft to 12.

Even without an Australian Army order, the reduced price of the Chinook family and the aircraft’s recent assumption of the tactical assault role in place of its original transport and ‘trash hauling’ duties, is expected to keep the CH-47 family in production until 2025, and possibly beyond. And the Chinook will still be in operational service past 2050.

The DMO’s Director General Army Aviation Systems, BRIG Andrew Dudgeon, hinted to ADM back in mid-year that the Army is looking at a 12-strong fleet of Chinooks.

Army is already planning a midlife upgrade to its Chinook fleet under Phase 5 of Project Air 9000, including an engine upgrade under Phase 5A; according to the DCP Phase 5B.1 will see other platform upgrades while 5B.2 will see ‘a substantial upgrade to the Chinook capability to ensure long-term cost-effectiveness.’

Army and DMO sources have acknowledged informally that one of the issues to be negotiated in upgrading the Chinooks is their current very high operational workload. The Army simply can’t afford to have two, or even one, aircraft offline for a significant period of time.

Acquisition questions
But if the decision is taken to acquire a further six Chinooks under Phase 5B.2, a key issue for the Army will be what configuration these should be, whether its existing Chinooks should be updated to the new standard, and what acquisition strategy will deliver the new aircraft at the lowest cost and with minimum disruption to the current in-service capability.

Essentially Army has three choices: to keep its upgraded CH-47Ds and acquire six more CH-47Fs (the current production standard); upgrade its D-model helicopters to CH-47F configuration and buy six more F-model aircraft; or buy 12 brand-new CH-47Fs.

The first option would see Army running a mixed fleet of aircraft requiring different training systems and supply chains. Aside from the extra costs it would incur, this may also constrain Australian Army Aviation in its ability to assemble force packages for particular tasks: you wouldn’t comfortably put together a two-ship package consisting of two different version of the Chinook – the supply chain and crew rotation/relief issues would be considerably more complex than for a single-model fleet.

The differences between the CH-47D and CH-47F are considerable: the latter has the US Army’s Rockwell Collins Common Avionics Architecture System (CAAS) cockpit incorporating five colour multi-function displays and front-ending a new suite of improved avionics and flight controls.

This is common across the US Army and Special Operations Command’s Black Hawk and MH-47G and HH-47 Combat Search & Rescue (CSAR) fleets.

Other features of the CH-47F include a slightly re-designed and modernised airframe and a BAE Systems Digital Advanced Flight Control System (DAFCS).

The DAFCS provides dramatically improved flight control capabilities through features such as ‘hover hold’, ‘altitude hold’ and ‘beep down’ that improve performance and safety in brownout situations, as well as the entire flight envelope.

Improved electronics
The CAAS improves situational awareness for flight crews through a digital map display and a data transfer system that allows storing of preflight and mission data. Other improved survivability features include Common Missile Warning and Improved Countermeasure Dispenser Systems.

Powered by two 4,868-horsepower Honeywell (formerly Textron Lycoming) T-55 engines, the new CH-47F has a speed of 155kt with a payload of up to 24,000lb. Fitted with the Robertson Aviation Extended Range Fuel System, it has a mission radius of more than 400nm, or a standard mission radius of about 200nm.

The D- and F-model differences are significant enough that acquiring an F-model aircraft would be tantamount to introducing a new type into service as far as some aspects of training and logistics support are concerned: not a trivial exercise.

A relatively simple solution for the ADF would be to order six new CH-47Fs and, once these start to enter service, have the six CH-47Ds upgraded to F-model configuration, as the US Army is currently doing. An alternative is to buy all-new F-model aircraft and simply dispose of the older D-model aircraft.

According to Boeing the difference in price between and new F-model and re-manufactured D-model is about US$6 million: the US Army is paying about US$24 million each for the 113 brand-new CH-47Fs it plans to order and about US$18 million teach to remanufacture 339 CH-47Ds to the upgraded specification.

At present the Chinook program is being funded in yearly Lots (Lots 4 and 5 are currently in build and long-lead items for Lot 6 are funded) and Boeing is trying to persuade the US government to sign a multi-year contract to reduce costs further.

Leaner production
The company’s Lean Manufacturing initiative has reduced the cost of both new-build and remanufactured aircraft, due in large part to a 15 per cent reduction in parts count.

It takes about 36 months to build an all-new aircraft (lead times matter here, especially for dynamic components and some specialty metals), and about 24 months to re-manufacture a D-Model.

The US Army’s 101 Airborne Division first combat unit started to take delivery of new F-model aircraft in mid-August. Boeing is also remanufacturing 61 D-model aircraft and MH-47Es to MH-47G standard for SOCOM.

On current plans F- and G-model Chinooks and their successors will be flying until at least 2050. Boeing also quietly points out that there is an F-model aircraft flying today which was re-manufactured from D-model configuration; previously it had been upgraded progressively from A-model configuration, so it is considerably older than most of the people why fly and maintain it.

The increasing demands of conventional and special forces for payload, range and performance have seen a steady migration towards the Chinook as the helicopter of choice for an increasing number of tactical and battlefield roles.

This is a reality acknowledged by the Australian Army for whom the question is not so much whether to buy new or upgraded Chinooks as when, and how?

Disclosure: ADM visited Boeing’s Philadelphia plant as a guest of The Boeing Company.