US Army helicopters cleared for moderate icing: Are British mil?
According to Defence Helicopter:
U.S. Army aviation sources say service helicopters are equipped to operate safely under icy conditions, though the degree of protection varies and can be increased where necessary.
The mainstay aircraft of the fleet - Black Hawks, Chinooks and Apaches have ant-icing systems - systems that prevent the formation of ice - from covering key aerodynamic parts of the structure. “These include main rotor blades and tail rotors, but more significantly the engine intakes - which have heated inlet ramps,’ said an official with AMCOM, the Army’s aviation and missile command in Huntsville, Ala.
‘The only ones we’re not sure about are the Kiowa Warrior scout helicopters. Some of those aircraft are ant-ice equipped and some are not.’
Most helicopters currently being operated in Afghanistan ‘belong’ to US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), and not directly to the regular Army Materiel Command support structure. ‘Those are 160th SOAR ships, and they have a different procurement structure, so you’d have to ask them the specifics,’ the official said.
‘However. all out aircraft - all of them, including the special ops ones - have to meet an icing operational standard down to minus 25 degrees F. Whether they have additional protection or not, that’s just a given.’
The helicopters can also been equipped with extra cold-weather kits that are used to provide starting and maintenance assistance when operating under severely adverse conditions. These kits help service consumables used in the aircraft, as well as provide extra current for starting turbines and APUs.
The Army works off an icing standard provided in 1980 when the entire range of aircraft went through airborne icing tests in the Duluth, Minn area. ‘As you know we haven’t changed the fleet since then, so the data we collected is still valid,’ an official commented.
But there was no confirmation from Huntsville on one question: whether ice brought down a special operations MH-60K on or about November 2 while flying near the Afghani - Pakistan border.
During that incident the pilot apparently landed hard, damaging his aircraft. A second helicopter - not identified as a Black Hawk - then landed. ‘We doubt the icing story,’ the source said, ‘because of the presence of the other aircraft. Wouldn’t it have got iced up, too?’ Other reports however said the second aircraft picked up the downed crew from a different location - making the ice theory at least plausible.
Helicopter pilots can obviously expect extreme flying conditions when winter closes in in Afghanistan. Altitudes around Kabul are the highest - varying between 12,000 and sometimes as high as 18,000 feet. Around Herat and Kandahar, however, the terrain is lower on average - around 5,000 ft. AMCOM sources had no comment on helicopter performance at the higher altitudes. It’s obvious, however, that for all the Army fleet compromises in payload/range and manoeuvrability are inevitable, certainly when operating at the terrain elevations around Kabul.
‘We’re OK in rain, and we’re OK in moderate icing and in IFR conditions. But if you get high mountain winds, and you’re up at altitude, then we’re going to be relying a lot on out training - as we always do,’ the source said.
Sources also said that the logistics train for spares to support Army (non-SOF) helicopters in Pakistan, Uzbekistan and elsewhere was ‘working quite OK,’ and that no readiness issues arising from this quarter should be experienced if - or when - ground operations in Afghanistan begin.
[ 09 November 2001: Message edited by: Hoverman ]
[ 09 November 2001: Message edited by: Hoverman ]