The shootdown of a Chinook helicopter by the Taliban, which killed 30 U.S. troops including 22 Navy SEALs is leading the U.S. Army Special Operations Command to push for faster helicopters.
“One hundred and seventy knots is not enough,” Army Col. Douglas Rombough, the program executive officer for rotary wing at U.S. Special Operations Command, told National Defense magazine. “We have to have a minimum of 200 knots capability. After you add all the things you like to add to the outside of that aircraft to make it shoot, move, communicate, with all the drag out there, we need to be proceeding to the objective at 200 knots or better.”
Helicopters typically remain in service for 20 years. But because they have been used so heavily in both Iraq and Afghanistan, many of them are wearing out early, notes National Defense. But improvements are on the way. As the magazine notes, “The new joint multi-role aircraft will have to provide drastic improvements over that current capability. That includes increasing hover altitude by 150 percent, increasing payload by 40 percent, and doubling mission speed and endurance. Special operators also want to reduce acoustic detection by 50 percent and cut in half the aircraft’s turning radius.” Nice.