Defense News reports, “The Army has ordered an aviation “safety stand up,” with additional aviation training across the force following a dozen mishaps that have resulted in 10 fatalities in only the first six months of the fiscal year. By comparison, the Army had 10 mishaps and 14 fatalities for all fiscal 2023.”
Full Story (Defense News)
Tag: US Army
Army Revamping Air Crew Training With Focus on Aircraft and Simulators
Defense News reports, “After several fatal Army aircraft crashes and the arrival of a more complicated airspace in the future, the service is reviewing and updating how it trains its pilots and its warrant officers in particular. Those changes will likely include a look at the types of helicopters soldiers are training with, simulator time and effectiveness, new rotor blades and tail rotor drive systems for the Apache and warrant officers sticking to their technical tasks for longer in the careers.”
Full Story (Defense News)
US Army Purchases Long-Endurance Solar Drones to Monitor Pacific Operations
Defense News reports, “The Army’s 1st Multi-Domain Task Force has used a small number of Kraus Hamdani Aerospace K1000 Ultra Long-Endurance, solar-powered unmanned aircraft system across the Pacific theater in places like the Philippines and Guam in recent years. Now the Pentagon has ordered $20 million worth of the systems for the unit as well as special operators.”
Full Story (Defense News)
U.S. Army’s Future Long-Range Tiltrotor Shifts to Next Development Phase
Defense News reports, “The U.S. Army’s future long-range aircraft is moving out of technology development and into the critical engineering and manufacturing development phase, the service announced Friday. The Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft program, or FLRAA, is estimated to be worth approximately $70 billion across its lifespan, including foreign military sales, and is set to replace roughly 2,000 Black Hawk utility helicopters.”
Full Story (Defense News)
Army Partners with Electra.aero for Electric Aircraft Testing
Flying Magazine reports, “The Army on Thursday awarded a $1.9 million Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract to Electra.aero, the manufacturer of a nine-passenger, hybrid-electric short takeoff and landing (eSTOL) design, to perform powered wind tunnel testing. The manufacturer’s flagship, hybrid-electric short takeoff and landing (eSTOL) aircraft requires only the space of a soccer field to launch and touch down.”
Full Story (Flying Magazine)
Opinion: US Army Would Benefit from Drone Operator Branch
Breaking Defense reports, “In this op-ed, John Ferrari explains why, despite the Army’s reservations, a new drone corps could be good for innovation.”
Full Story (Breaking Defense)
GE Aerospace Chosen to Provide Digital Backbone for Bell V-280 Valor
FlightGlobal reports that “GE Aerospace will provide digital backbone, voice and data recorder, and health awareness system for Bell V-280 Valor, which the US Army selected as its next-generation troop carrying aircraft.”
Full Story (FlightGlobal)
US Army Returns 59.5% of its Chinook Helicopter Fleet to Service Following Grounding
The Hill reports that US Army spokesman Jason Waggoner said that the service now has 59.5 percent of its Chinook helicopter fleet available to support missions and training after grounding the fleet late last month due to fuel leaks. Waggoner said that “though the number could fluctuate day to day, this number continues to increase daily with ongoing logbook records review and a standard leak-check maintenance procedure outlined in an Aviation Safety Action Message published” September 2.
Full Story (The Hill)
US Army Grounds Its Entire Fleet of Chinook Helicopters Over Risk of Engine Fires
Bloomberg reports that Army spokeswoman Cynthia Smith said in a statement that the service has “grounded its entire fleet of some 400 CH-47 Chinook transport helicopters after engine fires broke out on a few of them.”
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US Army Behind Zephyr HAPS Flight
Aviation Week reports that the US Army reports “it is behind an ongoing test flight of Airbus’ Zephyr high-altitude pseudo-satellite (HAPS), which has broken the record for longest-duration uncrewed aircraft system (UAS) mission. An Army statement dated July 21 announced the Zephyr had flown 36 days.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)
US Army Transfers Satellite Operations to Space Force
Space News reports that the US Space Force is to “take over control of the Wideband Global Satcom and Defense Satellite Communications System constellations of military satellites” from the US Army on Monday. The Army “shifted about $78 million to the Space Force’s 2022 budget to cover the cost of operating five satellite operations centers and four regional support centers. About 500 military and civilian personnel will transition from the Army to the Space Force’s Delta 8 unit based at Schriever Space Force Base, Colorado.”
Full Story (Space News)
US Army Postpones Zephyr Flight Tests After Loss of Prototype
Aviation Week reports that the US Army “has halted further flight tests of the Airbus Zephyr high-altitude pseudo-satellite following the loss of one of the aircraft after a 64-day flight.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)
US Army Identifies Ramjet PRSM as Long-Term Solution for MRC System
Aviation Week reports that the US Army has “identified a future ramjet-rocket version of the Lockheed Martin Precision Strike Missile (PRSM) as the long-term solution for the Mid-Range Capability (MRC) system in the long-range precision fires arsenal.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)