Texas-built Bell Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter Could Be
Answer To Mission Requirements
Bell Helicopter is offering a militarized version of its
enormously successful Bell 407 single engine light helicopter in
response to a Request For Proposal (RFP) issued by the U.S. Army on
December 9, 2004, for an Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter (ARH).
According to the RFP, the Army is expected to make a decision on
the ARH Program in June 2005, for a total of 368 aircraft to be
delivered between fiscal years 2006 through
2011.
A full-scale mock-up of the Bell ARH will on display at the
Association of the United States Army's (AUSA) Winter Symposium and
Exposition, February 16-18, 2005, at the Broward County Convention
Center, Fort Lauderdale (FL). Bell Helicopter believes its Bell 407
is the perfect aircraft for meeting the Army's current and future
ARH mission requirements.
The Bell ARH, which will be built at Bell's Military Assembly
and Integration Center in Amarillo, Texas, will also draw from a
large and talented supplier base for its sophisticated sensors,
weapons and defensive systems. As Systems Integration Leader,
Bell Helicopter works with Lockheed Martin, the prime contractor
for the Army's Technical Integration Center, to reduce cycle time
and risk in integrating the ARH Mission Equipment Package (MEP)
into the U.S. Army's Net Centric Environment.
Bell designed and performed the systems integration on the
OH-58D Kiowa Warrior, the Army's first fully digitized helicopter
which has accumulated over 1.1 million hours of flight time,
including 200,000 combat flight hours.
Bell Helicopter is teamed with a number of world-class aerospace
suppliers in support of the ARH program in the areas of Mission
Equipment Package (MEP) and training systems integration. In
addition to Lockheed Martin, Rockwell Collins, Honeywell, FLIR
Systems, L-3, Flight Safety (FSI) and Computer Sciences Corporation
round out Bell Helicopter's team in bringing the best of industry
to the Bell ARH program for the Army.
Capable of being equipped with a wide variety of weapons, the
Bell ARH will provide the Army with exceptional mission
versatility, with the flexibility to accomplish armed
reconnaissance, light attack, troop insertion, and special
operations missions with a single aircraft. The Bell ARH will
provide this flexibility during the day and at night as well as
during adverse weather or periods of poor visibility.
The Bell ARH will be powered by the Honeywell HTS900 turbine
engine that is based on proven, mature commercial and U.S. Army
T800 technology and design. In additional to being designed
for extremely low Direct Operating Costs (DOC), the HTS900 turbine
engine will be equipped with a sophisticated dual-channel full
authority digital engine control (FADEC) system, based on T800
technology.
One of the key requirements of the Army's RFP is
deployability. Two Bell ARH helicopters can be deployed
aboard a C-130 and be unloaded, flyable and ready to fight within
15 minutes.
The Bell ARH will be supported by Bell's industry-leading
product support organization with over 180 locations throughout the
world.
The Bell 407 is one of
most popular and reliable aircraft in the commercial helicopter
market. Since its FAA certification in February 1996,
Bell has delivered 625 Bell 407's to customers throughout the
world, making it the fastest selling turbine powered helicopter in
history. In fact, Bell demonstrated its capability for
high production rates with the 407 by producing 140 aircraft per
year in both 1997 and 1998.
The 407 has also proven to be a great helicopter for customers
in virtually every conceivable helicopter market including:
Corporate, Law Enforcement, EMS, Electronic News Gathering and
Utility. Operators fly Bell 407 helicopters in over 50
countries around the world. The current fleet of Bell 407
helicopters has logged over 1.25 million flight hours, with the
high time aircraft topping 10,000 flight hours.