Military Leak brings together all of the open-source intelligence, across defense technology, international news, equipments, contracts, procurements, and manufacturers. The UH-60V is being designed to update existing UH-60L analog architecture with a digital infrastructure to address evolving interoperability and survivability requirements. Since the time Northrop won the contract to integrate the new cockpit into the L-model fleet there’s been a “tremendous amount of inquiry” from international customers, who will be watching further flight tests of the V-model very closely.Īn engineering development model UH-60V Black Hawk hovers above the runway as part of its successful initial test flight Jan. It’s clear many countries, including in the Middle East, are looking to upgrade equipment already procured. During the first test, the aircraft used were engineering and manufacturing development versions of the aircraft and not production representative systems.Īround the world, countries with L-model Black Hawks might be interested in upgrading to a digital cockpit or they might be interested in streamlining a fleet of different aircraft with the same cockpit to help reduce logistics and training costs of a mixed-fleet or they could design brand new cockpits using the technology for brand new helicopters. The Army has developed a new software baseline — “baseline 3.0” — that is undergoing developmental testing, but has solved the challenges seen in the IOT&E from a software perspective. The Army has been looking at ways to speed that up. Army partnered with Corpus Christi Army Depot, Texas, to convert “L” models into new “V” models at a rate of 48 aircraft per year, which some have called too slow, as it would take 15 years for the service to produce all 760 aircraft. The UH-60V features a digital cockpit that updates the legacy analog gauges. Three prototypes spent more than two years in the Prototype Integration Facility at Redstone undergoing integration.ĪMRDEC’s Prototype Integration Facility assisted the Utility Helicopter Project Management Office in developing and qualifying the UH-60V aircraft. But its success could serve as springboard for the Army’s future vertical lift backbone, which will allow mission systems to seamlessly plug into the architecture of the aircraft. This replacement better matches the capability of the UH-60 Mike-model, the latest variant of the helicopter. The Victor model converts a Lima-model Black Hawk from an analogue cockpit to a digital one. The converted version is called the Victor-model. In 2017, Northrop Grumman won a US Army contract to upgrade Black Hawk L-model helicopter cockpits from analogue to integrated, open-architecture digital ones. That event was pushed back by a year due to the coronavirus pandemic and delays in the Instrument Flight Rules certification process (IFR) that would allow the aircraft to fly in national airspace. Army decided to hold a second test for the third quarter of fiscal year 2020. The first initial operational test and evaluation was conducted at Joint Base Lewis McChord in Washington State, in September 2019, but due to numerous software reliability issues, the U.S. Army has delayed a second attempt at an initial operational test for the UH-60 Victor-model Black Hawk until software and reliability fixes are made and the aircraft receives certification to fly in national airspace.
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