A CH-47F Chinook assigned to B Company, 101st Combat Aviation Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) perches on a mountain in the Alps in Germany, Oct. 21, 2020. (U.S. Army National Guard/Staff Sgt. Garrett L. Dipuma)
AAAA 2023 — It’s been roughly four years since the US Army put the brakes on buying the CH-47F Chinook Block II configuration, which seeks to improve speed and cargo capacity over the Block I. Now, as Army aviation leaders are exploring what they want and need from a future heavy-lift helicopter, the service is poised to make a final decision this year if they will buy the Block II en masse.
While the acquisition strategy is unclear, what isn’t is the fact the Army expects to rely on the entire Chinook fleet for the foreseeable future, even as it focuses on the Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft and Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) programs.
“I don’t see the Chinook going [anywhere],” Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville told reporters today during the annual AAAA conference in Nashville, Tenn. “The challenge that the Chief and Secretary have now, and the next Chief and Secretary will [have too], will be about priorities.”
Those priorities, he noted, include balancing future weapons, “enduring” systems like the CH-47 Chinook, and “legacy” systems that will be retired.
The four-star general, poised to retire in early August, noted he will not be around when the service finalizes its CH-47F Chinook Block II production decision, but said that process is underway. (That timeline would indicate a decision won’t come until September at the earliest.)
Up on Capitol Hill last week, Army acquisition head Doug Bush provided lawmakers on a House Armed Services subcommittee with a brief update of where that process stands and the delicate balance of making sure Boeing’s Chinook workforce has enough to do while the service works through its lingering question marks.
“This is a calendar year 2023 decision, which really makes it a fiscal year 2025 decision from the Army: That’s the budget we’re building right now,” Bush said during an April 19 hearing.
Part of that decision making process includes a heavy lift cargo study that kicked off earlier this year, Aviation Cross Functional Team chief Maj. Gen. Wally Rugen told reporters today. That review, he noted, is a “holistic look across technology and requirements and timelines. It’ll take [the] current fleet into account.”
Although the Army has been reluctant to commit to the Block II aircraft, the special operations community, foreign partners and lawmakers have not been.
The former, for example, continues placing orders for the MH-47G (a Block II configuration for special operations forces) and requested funding for six of those helicopters in FY24. That’s not a large number, but the Chinook program is afloat due to lawmakers and foreign interest. Bush has said the service is banking on German plans to buy roughly 60 of those helicopters to keep the industrial base healthy while the Army decides what to do.
Lawmakers, meanwhile, have repeatedly added unrequested funds into the budget for the service to purchase up to 10 helicopters. As a result, the Army has now ordered six of those aircraft (the first expected to be delivered in 2024) with plans to order the remaining four before October when FY23 ends, Program Executive Officer for Aviation Maj. Gen. Robert Barrie told reporters today.
“Whichever direction the Army ultimately goes [this] buys us some more time,” Bush explained. “That being said, you know, the aircraft that Congress has added for the army to procure we have secured and we are going to field. But I think at this time, it’s a question of balancing resources across the entire Army. That is the question in front of senior Army leaders with regards to where this falls in that mix.”
As the service works through its plan, Ken Eland, Boeing’s vice president and program manager for cargo lift, told Breaking Defense today that the Chinook production line remains slower than in the past.
“We’ve been operating close to what we call our minimum sustainable rate, or MSR, which is a challenge from an efficiency standpoint [and] from a supply chain standpoint of having significantly less work than we’ve had historically,” he said. However, he noted that the company is waiting for the final go ahead and all the approvals to be in place to move ahead with the German order.
