TehnoMil

Armata americana vrea din nou un elicopter de recunoastere si atac usor gen Comanche. Din solicitarea data publicitatii recent e de retinut:

“Army Aviation must operate in highly contested/complex airspace and degraded environments against peer/near peer adversaries capable of an advanced integrated air defense system. The Army currently lacks the ability to conduct armed reconnaissance, light attack, and security with improved stand-off and lethal and non-lethal capabilities with a platform sized to hide in RADAR clutter and for the urban canyons of mega cities.

Teamed with unmanned systems and various air launched effects, this platform will be the center piece of the integrated air defense system (IADS) breeching team to provide freedom of maneuver in a multi-domain battle. This platform is the “knife fighter” of future Army Aviation capabilities, a small form factor platform with maximized performance.”
Sursa: fbo.gov

Deci se cere un elicopter mai mic decat elicopterele de atac dedicate gen Apache, greu observabil radar si care sa poata fi folosit pentru anihilarea sistemelor anti-aeriene adverse (da, in ciuda zvonurilor, elicopterul poate fi o platforma foarte capabila impotriva sistemelor AA). Pare exact descrierea RAH-66 Comanche. Care a fost insa abandonat in 2004.

Pentru noul program – Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft Competitive Prototype (FARA CP) – se doreste selectarea in 2019 a intre 4 si 6 concurenti, dintre care doar 2 se vor califica in 2020 in faza urmatoare, ce prevede proiectarea detaliata a prototipurilor, primul zbor fiind prevazut pentru 2023.

Nu este clar daca FARA este parte a programului Future Vertical Lift (FVL), care urmareste inlocuirea majoritatii tipurilor de elicoptere din dotarea americana, inclusiv Blackhawk si Apache, si care este impartit in 3 categorii de greutate – usor, mediu (de unde vor rezulta cele doua variante ce vor inlocui Blackhawk si Apache) si greu – si 5 seturi de cerinte (capability sets). Despre cum se va plasa FARA in grila asta, se stie doar ca va fi “comparable in size to what has been described as FVL Capability Set (CS) 1“, adica cu elicopterul usor FVL insa asta nu inseamna neaparat ca FARA va fi chiar o varianta a FVL ci doar ceva similar ca dimensiuni.

Continuare…