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Future Vertical Lift

The Navy piggy-backed off the Army's UH-60A way back when with the SH-60B and further Navy variants culminating in todays HSM and HSC helos. Now the Army seems to be going tilt-rotor (though I wonder if that will survive budget pressures.) The Air Force is buying new CSAR HH-60Ws Jolly Green IIs, so the production line is still hot for now. But it seems to me that there is a brewing crisis as the current near-new and near-shiny MH-60s age. The helo hangars on DDGs are only so big, etc.

Comments or is it too early to be concerned?
 
Seriously though, I've thrown my semi-informed opinions into the FVL/FLRAA thread, but in short:

Yes, CRUDES (and FFG-62) hangars fit and support a certain size/type of helicopter. My money is on FVL Maritime Strike being a combination of a UAS and something that looks a helluva lot like an MH-60R, but
  • Improved with knowledge from MH-53K and VH-92,
  • Having evolutionary improvements in engines, rotors, aero, etc. (Not coaxial or tiltrotor),
  • Much more modular - so it can be a better truck for SAR/LOG while still being fully ship-compatible and mission-capable (more trucked SH-60F, less CH-60S)
Happy to buy beers for anyone that calls out my bad predictions in 15-20 Yeats.
 
robav8r said:
Looks like the MH-60R is still winning friends and influencing people . . . .
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That's not the first article I've read talking about customers' disappointment with the NH90 - poor reliability, high costs per hour, deliveries delayed by years (even decades). I don't know if it's an Airbus problem specifically or what. I know the Aussies have decided to scrap theirs in favor of -60Ms and additional -60Rs for the Navy.
 
Uncle Fester said:
That's not the first article I've read talking about customers' disappointment with the NH90 - poor reliability, high costs per hour, deliveries delayed by years (even decades). I don't know if it's an Airbus problem specifically or what. I know the Aussies have decided to scrap theirs in favor of -60Ms and additional -60Rs for the Navy.
Click to expand...

I worked with the Dutch and to say they were disappointed with the NH90 was an understatement, they couldn't even fly in anything but CAVU due to systems issues and even then they couldn't do anything mission-related. I know a couple of NH90 Observers (NFOs) had to fly other platforms to get any sort of flight time since they weren't getting much at all.

I think many of the problems are unique to NH90, while other programs seem to have issues I can't recall another program that has been so bad that countries actually cancel contracts in the middle of delivery and even demand refunds.
 
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Merged the threads.

I hadn't heard about Norway. The article doesn't state whether it's a FMS case or not. It will be interesting to see how the training will go down in that tight a time frame.

I also don't believe the article is correct. Unless @IKE has new info, I believe the USN production is complete and the units coming off the line now are all LOT 16 FMS aircraft.
 
Gatordev said:
Merged the threads.

I hadn't heard about Norway. The article doesn't state whether it's a FMS case or not. It will be interesting to see how the training will go down in that tight a time frame.

I also don't believe the article is correct. Unless @IKE has new info, I believe the USN production is complete and the units coming off the line now are all LOT 16 FMS aircraft.
Click to expand...
I have a PM friend up in Owego - I'll check.
 
Gatordev said:
Merged the threads.

I hadn't heard about Norway. The article doesn't state whether it's a FMS case or not. It will be interesting to see how the training will go down in that tight a time frame.

I also don't believe the article is correct. Unless @IKE has new info, I believe the USN production is complete and the units coming off the line now are all LOT 16 FMS aircraft.
Click to expand...
I don't have any official new info. I knew there was some courtship, but hadn't heard of a decision. To be fair, there could be many months between a foreign government's public declaration of intent and an LOA being signed to make the FMS case real.
 
IKE said:
To be fair, there could be many months between a foreign government's public declaration of intent and an LOA being signed to make the FMS case real.
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Or years.

I interpreted the article as saying that Norway had signed, but now that you mentioned it, I guess it didn't actually say that. My bad.
 
robav8r said:
I have a PM friend up in Owego - I'll check.
Click to expand...
My friend said this: "We took three production aircraft and gave them to India and we took three production aircraft and gave them to Greece so there are aircraft that are called replace-in-kind that will be USN aircraft in the future and we don't use the term lot 16 lot 15 are the three greece aircraft and then after that they are just referred to by the country."
 
Per Flight Global headline -- the paywall got me after that -- USN starting planning to replace MH-60s and MQ-8s. I doubt they're got much info in the story.
 
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