Borgundy’s Helicopter for All Seasons

Time to do a procurement post for something I have been putting off: Utility Helicopters. This is a really crowded market, and the fact that we can probably get rid of anything on the really large end as being to similar to the CH-47 that we’ve already bought doesn’t help us very much. Since there are so many plausible options, let’s look at what we need, and then throw on some nice-to-haves that could hopefully narrow the field. That’s a lot more interesting than a deep dive into costs, and much more practicable for me (in that I’m actually willing to write it and I don’t need to track down pricing data).

First, just to simplify things a little, we want a fully combat-ready helicopter that’s been purchased by at least one other nation. Probably obvious, but it needs saying. No reinventing the rotor for this.

Next, we want a capacity of about a squad’s worth of men. As I write this, it occurs to me that I haven’t talked as much as I should about organization, and I certainly haven’t talked much about light infantry. We’ll pick ten combat-laden men as the minimum required capacity. Somewhat arbitrary, but that should cover most squad options. Note the emphasis on combat-laden; this is not a question of overall passenger capacity, but immediately usable passenger capacity for men ready to go into the fight.

Cargo capacity isn’t a huge deal, mostly because we already have CH-47s. I have no particular requirements for cargo capacity, other than there should be some. Certainly anything that meets the troop requirement above will have sufficient cargo capacity for our purposes.

We would also require medevac capability, but that is also no great burden, as most utility helicopter models available already have the capability to be easily reconfigured for stretchers.

Clearly, our utility helicopter should also have the ability to mount door guns, but again, this is no great burden. That’s a pretty standard utility helicopter feature. It would also be nice if we could mount pylons with some rockets for some extra support/attack capability. Also no great burden.

Now, let’s get on to some actual, difficult requirements. We’d like versions available with an aerial refueling probe. Specifically, we’d like this to facilitate longer-range search and rescue operations as well as long range special operations deployments. Fulfilling this is actually quite the tall order by the rules of our procurement game.

That gets us nicely to the UH-60 Blackhawk as our overall utility helicopter choice. It’s not the cheapest option, but it’s also not the most expensive, and it has the variants we want, namely the HH-60 with the refueling boom. And yes, that variant has been exported to South Korea. The Blackhawk is a proven choice, with plenty of export buys as well as good combat service. It also has an available gunship variant. As we’ll see in another post, it’s also one of the few utility helicopters to have an actual production electronic warfare variant. The Blackhawk is available with a bunch of integrated FLIR options (again, thanks HH-60), and there’s even a couple naval versions, should we want them.

6 thoughts on “Borgundy’s Helicopter for All Seasons

    1. parvusimperator Post author

      That’s a good question. My best answer is maybe, since closer allies seem to get more of the store. Alas, the UK and Australia don’t seem to be in the market for a stealth Blackhawk yet, so we don’t get to see if they can get one.

  1. Chris Bradshaw

    You’d think the SAS would like to get their hands on a stealth chopper, but apparently not… or maybe the MOD just doesn’t want to pay for one. Then again, the hardware on a stealth chopper probably isn’t as revolutionary as an F-35, and the US is selling those to damn well near everyone.

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    1. Fishbreath

      Given what a surprise it was when a stealth helo showed up in the US inventory, I would mark it entirely plausible that the UK or some other close ally already has stealth helos and just isn’t saying.

    2. parvusimperator Post author

      I was suspecting MOD didn’t want to pay the bill, but it’s also entirely possible that they bought some after Team Six bagged bin laden and aren’t telling anyone.

  2. Chris Bradshaw

    I’d like to believe that, but it would be so much harder to conceal a stealth chopper in the UK than in the US. We operate our stealth helos out of literally Area 51 in the middle of the desert. All of the RAF air bases tend to be pretty close to populated areas that would make it difficult to avoid attention.

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