Army Special Operations Command wants speedier helicopters.

• Author: Jean, Grace V.
• Position: Air Power

One of the biggest drawbacks of helicopters is that they are slow, which makes them vulnerable to enemy fire. U.S. special operations units, which recently suffered a historic loss when Taliban fighters downed a Chinook helicopter, killing 30 US. troops, including 22 Navy Seals, would greatly benefit from faster choppers.

"One hundred and seventy knots is not enough," said Army Col. Douglas Rombough, the program executive officer for rotary wing at U.S. Special Operations Command. "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."

SOCOM helicopters are rapidly wearing down after a decade of nonstop operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Military rotary-wing aircraft typically remain in service for a 20-year lifespan. But in the case of special operations forces, which fly helicopters at higher gross weights, the aircraft are only making it to the 15-year mark because of heavy usage in the wars, officials said.

Despite an extensive modernization program under way to recapitalize the vertical lift fleet, Army special operations officials have said that they cannot meet future operational requirements with upgrades alone.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Only new designs can achieve the speed, endurance, range and payload that operators want, officials said. Systems also are needed to reduce pilot workload.

"We've got to go through a whole new process. We need game changer-type stuff for all those reasons," Rombough said at a special operations industry conference.

Conventional forces, too, are eyeing new aircraft. Army officials have said that the service's rotary aircraft fleet by 2030 will have reached the ends of its useful life.

Finding replacement aircraft means technology development must start now.

In 2009, then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates mandated that all the services begin looking at future joint rotary-wing lift requirements. They came up with...