Latest news with #UH-60MBlackHawk
Roya News
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Roya News
Jordan air force confirms delivery of first F-16 block 70 fighter jets
Commander of the Royal Jordanian Air Force (RJAF), Brig. Gen. Mohammad Fathi Al-Hiyasat, confirmed that Jordan received two F-16 Block 70 fighter jets from Lockheed Martin, with 12 more expected to arrive at a later date, adding that the RJAF will be equipped with a total of 16. In remarks to Roya's 'Helwa Ya Donya', Hiyasat stated that existing aircraft are also being upgraded with advanced navigation systems. In February 2024, the Air Force received two UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters, as part of a plan to acquire eight by 2026–2027. In December 2023, a new simulated flight training squadron was inaugurated at the Muwaffaq Al-Salti Air Base, under royal patronage, to enhance pilot performance, Hiyasat continued. And to improve aerial transport, the RJAF acquired three C-130 aircraft equipped with Roll-On/Roll-Off (RORO) capability, with three more expected from the United States next year. It also received six "Little Bird" helicopters, with six others undergoing upgrades to support ground forces. Additionally, four 'Cessna C-208EX Grand Caravan' reconnaissance aircraft were introduced last year, boosting aerial surveillance capabilities. Hiyasat said that the Air Force has integrated unmanned aerial systems capable of flying 24-hour missions along border areas, transmitting real-time images to command centers. A new UTM (Unmanned Traffic Management) system was acquired to manage drone operations within Jordanian airspace. Air defense systems have also been enhanced with electronic jamming capabilities and 30mm anti-drone cannons. The RJAF added two new Air Tractor aircraft for firefighting operations, capable of deploying quickly anywhere in Jordan or to Mediterranean nations in need. Hiyasat highlighted significant advancements made under King Abdullah II's leadership, particularly in RJAF's operational readiness, training standards, and integration of modern defense technologies. He said that the Air Force is a cornerstone of national defense and benefits from close oversight by the King, the Crown Prince, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to ensure the highest level of professionalism. Humanitarian and Relief Missions The RJAF continues to play a vital humanitarian role, providing aid to Syria and Turkey after the earthquakes, assisting Lebanon following the Beirut Port explosion, and supporting Libya after devastating floods. The Air Force has also evacuated Jordanians, including patients and the injured, from crisis zones worldwide. Gaza support In response to royal directives, RJAF has conducted 126 air missions into Gaza, delivering food and medical aid across the enclave. Sixteen GPS-guided aircraft have conducted precise airdrops to support Jordan's field hospitals in Gaza, while 53 cargo flights have delivered aid to Egypt's Al-Arish Airport for onward transport into Gaza.
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
New US Army helo engine lifts off, but may be headed for cancellation
NASHVILLE, Tenn. − For the first time, the Army's UH-60M Black Hawk utility helicopter lifted off the ground into a hover at a Sikorsky test facility, powered by the improved turbine engine that has been in development since the mid-2000s, according to the service's program executive officer for aviation. But as the Improved Turbine Engine Program leaps that hurdle toward the finish line, the effort is in jeopardy as the service looks to cut large programs to make way for the pursuit of what it sees as higher priorities amid the need to cut its budget by 8% as directed by the defense secretary. Army Vice Chief of Staff, Gen. James Mingus told reporters at the Army Aviation Association of America confab here that the service is waiting to see where it lands with the fiscal 2026 budget. Officials are trying to gauge how much flexibility the service has in the budget reconciliation process to fully understand if it can afford to pay for ITEP. 'The future of ITEP is largely going to depend on where all these things land inside the '26 budget,' Mingus said. Currently, there is no funding planned to move the program from development into production. Amid mixed messages on the engine's fate over the past several weeks, following the release of an Army directive outlining sweeping change to the service dubbed by the service secretary as the Army Transformation Initiative, Army aviation leaders are working on various potential paths for the engine. Options include outright cancellation, a continuation of the development program followed by its closeout, or a decision to proceed into production. 'We have two weeks, and now there are several programs named, you know, each of them come with a set of courses of action that we have been working on to make sure that we can meet Army senior leaders' intent,' Brig. Gen. David Phillips, the Army's program executive officer for aviation, told reporters May 15 at the Army Aviation Association of America. The ITEP program kicked off in a competition 15 years ago to replace the engines in both the UH-60 and the AH-64 Apache attack helicopter. But the engine effort has been plagued by various delays across its life as the service wrestled with funding, development strategies and a protest from the Advanced Turbine Engine Company – a Honeywell and Pratt & Whitney team, which competed against General Electric's aerospace division to build the engine for the Army. More recently, the engine was hit with more delays due to technical issues as well as the coronavirus pandemic, which caused supply chain problems. When GE won the contract, it touted a plan to move more quickly, but that window to accelerate closed and the Army subsequently predicted a two-year delay getting the T901 engine into the UH-60 Black Hawk, the first aircraft in the current fleet to receive the new tech. The Army was able to garner some important data when it chose to integrate the ITEP onto two competitive prototypes for the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft. The companies in that competition – Bell and Sikorsky – had both received the engines and were installing them when the service decided to cancel the FARA program early last year. When the service canceled the FARA pursuit, it also delayed a production decision for the ITEP engine by three years. Sikorsky had taken advantage of fiscal 2024 FARA program funding before the Army officially closed the program at the end of the year to run tests of the ITEP in the prototype, ahead of integrating the engine into the UH-60, in order to drive down risk. The company received the first ITEP engines for the Black Hawk last fall and began ground runs earlier this year. 'We're currently still under contract to execute the program we were for ITEP,' Rich Benton, Sikorsky's head, told Defense News in an interview at the AAAA event. 'There's still budget in 2025 to continue that work. Will there be budget in the future years or not? You know, that's up to the Army and the [congressional] appropriators,' he said. 'The budget we have today, we'll get the Black Hawk in the air,' he said in a May 14 interview. 'How much flying and how much data we get from that will be up to the Army,' Benton said. 'We're looking at a path ahead in real time on the options and the options could be finish [integration], because there's not just the aircraft integration going on, but there's also the engine qualification testing that is going on in test stands,' Phillips said. 'We've had engines in test stands now for several years gathering low altitude, high altitude, low performance, high performance data. All of that data is very rich and informing the path ahead.' Additionally, the Army continues to have discussions with its joint partners regarding their interest in the engine and how they might integrate it onto their aircraft and a potential path forward there, according to Phillips. And foreign partners have also asked the same question about how they could potentially move forward with the ITEP engine as well. 'We're presenting all those, on how we could get Army senior leaders to meet their intent but get the most out of the dollars that we've invested in the program,' he said. Overall, the Army has spent over an estimated $1.5 billion over the past two decades on ITEP and its precursor development. The service had spent approximately $720 million on the program by 2016. The Army's contracts to competitors in 2016 totaled $256 million and the service awarded a $517 million contract for the engineering and manufacturing development phase to GE in 2019. What is under consideration for a different path to modernize the Black Hawk and Apache's engines, if the Army chooses to end the ITEP program prior to production, is unclear. 'If I had to decide today, hey, if that engine isn't going to be available in the future, what would I do differently? Integrate a different engine? I would quickly pivot to the engine the [Special Operations forces] flies. The SOF flies with a more powerful engine,' Benton said. 'Today it's been integrated in Black Hawk, it has been demonstrated. It is available today, so there would be commonality that would provide some more capability than I have today, [but] not as much as ITEP.' The Army is 'always looking at new ways to provide more performance to the aircraft, whether it's making components lighter, whether it's adding more power, whether it's adding additional fuel consumption capabilities,' Phillips said, 'We always look at that and I think we'll continue to look at that regardless of the outcome.'
Yahoo
29-01-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
UH-60 Black Hawk Begins Ground Tests With Far More Powerful T901 Engines
A U.S. Army UH-60M Black Hawk helicopter has completed initial ground runs with two of the new T901 Improved Turbine Engines. Developed under the Improved Turbine Engine Program (ITEP), the T901 was planned to power the now-canceled Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) but will instead make its way into the UH-60 and the AH-64 Apache attack helicopter. The engine maker GE Aerospace announced today that the initial ground runs had been completed at Sikorsky's West Palm Beach facility. Conducted ahead of test flying, the tests confirmed the basic performance of the engine's critical systems — including fuel, electrical, hydraulic, engine and flight control systems, and engine bay flow. At the same time, aircraft and engine instrumentation provided data that will help prepare for the flight test program, which is due to start before the end of this year. The imagery of the UH-60M reveals a prominent orange-painted test boom carrying air data instrumentation jutting out from the nose. Other notable features include an orange dome on top of the main rotor boss as well as a prominent structure that covers the tail rotor hub. The exact functions of these are unclear, but they may also contain test equipment or be required to handle the more powerful engines. 'The test demonstrated the T901's start-to-fly progression, including idle and fly modes, with the rotor brake disengaged,' Sikorsky said in a statement. The initial ground runs were carried out by a combined U.S. Army and industry test team with the UH-60M operated by Army and Sikorsky pilots. We have light off! For the first time, a UH-60M Black Hawk conducted ground runs equipped with two @GE_Aerospace T901 Improved Turbine Engines. — Sikorsky (@Sikorsky) January 29, 2025 The T901 has been developed as a successor to the T700 engine that currently powers the UH-60 and AH-64 and is scaled to fit inside the same engine compartment. Compared to the previous engine, the T901 offers 50 percent more power — which translates to a maximum of roughly 3,000 shaft horsepower — bringing a considerable advantage in terms of hot-and-high performance, which is otherwise a significant limiting factor for rotorcraft. The new engine is also intended to bring improved fuel efficiency. On top of this, more powerful engines should ensure that the Black Hawk and Apache can carry heavier loads over greater distances. This is a factor that would be of critical importance in a future conflict across the vast distances of the Asia-Pacific theater, in particular, where helicopters are already struggling for relevance, due to their limited endurance. Meanwhile, a simpler design and fewer parts should translate into reduced life-cycle costs. As well as traditionally manufactured components, the T901 also makes use of more exotic production techniques, including additive manufacturing and ceramic matrix composites. Once installed in the UH-60 and AH-64, the T901 promises to provide these aircraft with increased range, longer loiter time, and reduced maintenance and sustainment costs. The Army first got its hands on the T901 in October 2023, when two flight test engines were delivered for the FARA competitive prototype effort — one of the service's highest-profile aviation programs. Sikorsky integrated the T901 into its Raider X aircraft and conducted ground runs. However, FARA was canceled in early 2024, a decision that we discussed in detail at the time. Nevertheless, ground runs in the Raider X reduced the risk involved in Black Hawk integration and testing. In June last year, the first two T901 flight test engines for the UH-60M were handed over to Sikorsky. For both the UH-60 and AH-64, more power is fast becoming essential, with the latest versions of these helicopters operating at much greater weights than when they were first introduced, as they have increasingly added more avionics, sensors, and weapons. Speaking about the plan to put T901 engines in the AH-64 specifically, T.J. Jamison, Boeing's business development director for the Apache and for the AH-6 Little Bird, told TWZ last November: 'The ability to bring ITEP into the Apache … sets you up for room for growth, extended range, reach, and payloads.' The ability to accommodate the new engines is something that's ingrained in the latest V6.5 configuration of the Apache, which first flew in October of 2023 and is now coming off the production line. Although Boeing has received a developmental contract for the integration of the T901 into the Apache, the U.S. Army has decided to prioritize putting the new engine into the Black Hawk. In the meantime, Boeing is using some of its own funds to continue the design work to get the new engine into the Apache. For the Apache specifically, Boeing is also working on other improvements to the propulsion system, which will complement the new engines. As you can read about here, they include the Improved Tail Rotor Blade (ITRB) and Improved Tail Rotor Drive System (ITRDS). The ITRB is primarily focused on sustainment, ensuring the tail rotor blades can be more easily repaired and maintained, including on the battlefield, while ITRDS ensures that more power and authority are delivered to the tail rotor, something that will truly come into its own once harnessed to the power of the T901. Returning to the UH-60M, the T901 is a fundamental part of the broader vision for a modernized Black Hawk fleet. Speaking about what ITEP will provide the workhorse helicopter, Hamid Salim, vice president of Army and Air Force Systems at Sikorsky, noted that the re-engined Black Hawk would be able to 'travel farther on less fuel and with more troops and cargo.' Salim also pointed specifically to the T901 enabling the UH-60M to take on new and emerging missions, 'such as deploying and managing launched effects.' Launched effects, previously referred to as air-launched effects (ALEs), are a category of varied uncrewed systems that you can read more about here. The new launched effects terminology reflects the fact they might be launched from land or maritime platforms, as well as crewed and uncrewed aircraft. They are a growing area of interest for the Army in particular, not only for rotary-wing platforms. As well as the new engines and launched effects, the central pillars of the modernized Black Hawk include a Modular Open Systems Approach/digital backbone, which is set to improve safety and mission readiness while reducing unscheduled maintenance. Sikorsky is also increasingly working to reduce pilot workload and increase safety by incorporating autonomous technology, meaning the future Black Hawk should be able to operate with or without any humans on board. New engine offerings could make the H-60 series and the AH-64 even more attractive to other potential customers. Both are still very much in production and the prospect of much more power in the future will only boost export prospects for what are already leaders in their respective market segments. For the U.S. Army, meanwhile, re-engining the Black Hawk and the Apache will also go some way toward ensuring these older designs can contribute, even to a limited degree, to what officials are already talking about in terms of a revolution in air assault operations — one that they expect will be heralded by the arrival of the Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) tiltrotor. An entirely new kind of aircraft, the Army expects FLRAA will provide it with a vastly improved set of speed, range, and survivability metrics. In the past, TWZ has questioned how the Black Hawk and the Apache might be able to better keep pace with FLRAA's obvious difference in speed and range. While new engines won't offer performance comparable with FLRAA, they will, at the very least, provide a significant advance over what today's Black Hawk and Apache are capable. At the same time they will help bridge the gap to FLRAA. And even after this new aircraft enters service and fills the flightlines of Army Airfields, the UH-60 and the AH-64 are slated to continue soldiering on. Contact the author: thomas@
