美 육군의 JMR (Joint Multi-Role) 개발 사업 소식...

 

美 육군이 2025년경 실전배치를 목표로 하는 통합다목적헬기 (JMR, Joint Multi-Role) 도입사업을 구상하고 있다는

AW&ST 기사를 소개 합니다.

 

2020년 이후 현재 운용 중인 美 육군 헬기들을 대체하고자 하는 목표로, 美 국방성과 3軍이 공동으로 진행하고 있는

JSF (Joint Strike Fighter) 사업과 같은 형식으로, JMR 사업을 추진하고자 한다는 내용입니다.

 

美 육군은, NASA 와 국방성 산하 DARPA (국방고등연구기획국, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency)

의 참여를 유도하고자 하며, 2011 회계년도에는 예산을 반영하여 2011년 중반부터 기술실증기에 대한 제작에 돌입

한다는 계획입니다.

 

美國의 관련 업계 역시 Vertical Lift Consortium (VLC) 를 구성하여 JMR 사업에 참여한다는 기본적인 입장을 가지

고 있다고 합니다. 다만 역시 JMR 의 성공여부는 우선적으로 개발비 확보에 달려 있는 것으로 예상하고 있습니다.

 

현재 美 육군은 JMR 초도개발이 순조로이 진행 될 경우, 2~3대의 기술실증기를 제작하고자 합니다만, VLC 측에서

예상하는 바로는 현재 美 육군이 확보하고자 하는 예산으로는 기술실증기는 1대만 확보가 가능하다고 합니다. 물론

美 육군이 추가적인 예산을 확보한다면 얘기는 달라질 것으로 판단됩니다.

 

한편 JMR 의 기본 개념은, 아래 기사에서도 언급 되었습니다만, 현재 美 육군이 운용 중인 모든 종류의 회전익기를

통합하는 것으로 계획하고 있습니다. 즉 Scout, 공격, Utility (수송) 등의 목적으로 운용 중인 헬기들으로 모두 통합

platform 으로 개발, 파생형으로 넓혀 나간다는 계획입니다. OH-58 Kiowa 부터 중형 Apache 와 Black Hawk 는

물론 Chinook 까지 모두 JMR 로 통합하겠다는 내용입니다. 또한 향후 美 해군과 해병대 그리고 공군의 회전익기에

대한 대체 사업에도 JMR 을 제안하고자 한다는 내용입니다.

 

이번 美 육군의 JMR 계획에 대해서 업계, VLC 의 반응은 일단 긍정적이라 합니다. 1998년도에 JART 사업을 취소

한 바 있는 美 육군이 날로 심화되고 있는 회전익기들의 노후화로 인해, JMR 사업은 어떤 형태로든 진행할 것으로

예상하고 있습니다.

 

끝으로 美 육군은 JMR 기술실증기의 초도비행은 2017년 중반으로 계획하고 있으며, 실전배치는 2026년을 목표로

한다고 합니다. JMR 에 대한 간략한 제원은 아래 기사를 참조하시면 됩니다.

 

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Rotary Lifeline

Technology-demonstrator plan offers U.S. rotorcraft industry hope of avoiding manufacturing gap after 2020

Aviation Week &Space Technology, 10/11/2010

Author: Graham Warwick

 

Finally heeding the helicopter industry’s dire warnings of a production gap beyond 2020, the U.S. Army is launching a program to fly technology demonstrators for advanced rotorcraft that could enter production around 2025.

 

The Army is working to bring other U.S. services into the Joint Multi-Role (JMR) technology demonstration, which is modeled on the Joint Advanced Strike Technology (JAST) program that led to development of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

 

The move comes more than a decade after a similar attempt to launch a JSF-style rotorcraft initiative failed, and it responds to increasingly desperate industry calls for a new program. But it is far from clear whether the Army will have the funding or will power to follow the JMR technology demonstration with the new-aircraft development and production program manufacturers say they need.

 

Industry has welcomed news of the JMR demo program, although the level of funding has not been specified and the role of the recently formed Vertical Lift Consortium is not clear. The consortium was formed at the Defense Department’s urging to stimulate innovation in the rotorcraft industry by bringing together large and small companies and academia.

 

“We’re funded to build two clean-sheet aircraft that may or may not be the same configuration,” says Ned Chase, chief of the platform technology division, Army Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center (Amrdec). Configuration options include advanced and compound helicopters and tiltrotors.

 

The Army is hoping the other services, NASA and the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency will bring funding to the program. “We plan to build two demonstrators, but we’d like to have enough money to build three,” says Jim Snider, director of aviation development for Amrdec. The Army officials were addressing the International Powered Lift Conference here on Oct. 5.

 

JMR is intended to demonstrate technology for a family of rotorcraft that would ultimately replace all of the Army’s helicopters — scout, attack, utility and cargo — as well as similar platforms operated by the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force. The focus is on replacing the “medium” fleets of AH-64 Apaches and UH-60 Black Hawks, but the demonstrator configurations must be scalable downward to replace OH-58D Kiowa Warrior armed scouts and potentially upward to replace heavy-lift CH-47 Chinooks.

 

The JMR tech demo is similar to the Joint Advanced Rotorcraft Technology (JART) program proposed in 1998 and modeled on the JAST effort. JART was ultimately vetoed by the services as unaffordable. This time, say industry officials at the conference, the Army has recognized it has no choice, because its helicopter fleet is aging.

 

Although the services are buying new-production helicopters, their designs date from the 1960s and ’70s and operations in Iraq and Afghanistan have highlighted shortcomings in performance, reliability and survivability. Attributes for JMR include increased payload, range and speed, with greater durability, survivability and affordability.

 

Notional performance targets include a speed of at least 170 kt. and an unrefueled radius of 474 km. (294 mi.) in 6,000-ft./95F hot-and-high conditions, with 30 min. on station in the utility/cargo missions and 120 min. in attack/reconnaissance roles.

 

In initial configuration studies these targets resulted in a large aircraft, Snider says, so the Army is looking at how manned/unmanned teaming could be used to reduce the endurance and range requirements and produce an affordable aircraft.

 

The Army has completed an initial phase of studies and begun a second phase of configuration analyses. Amrdec was planning to issue a solicitation for industry trade studies early in Fiscal 2011, but Chase says this has been delayed while negotiations with other services on a joint program are underway. Study contracts are now expected to be awarded by mid-2011.

 

The plan calls for configuration studies in 2011-13, followed by a flight demonstrator phase leading to a decision around 2020 on whether to launch a five-year development program for the first class of rotorcraft using JMR technology. This aircraft is planned to enter service around 2026, for a time span similar to the F-22’s and F-35’s and shorter than that of the V-22 Osprey and canceled RAH-66 Comanche.

 

Which helicopter fleet is replaced first will depend on what the Army decides to do about its armed aerial scout requirement following cancellation of the ARH-70, Snider says. The service could buy an interim aircraft or upgrade the OH-58Ds to keep them in service until they can be replaced by a new JMR-technology aircraft, he says.

 

The flight demonstration is to have two steps. In the first phase, aircraft will be built and flown to demonstrate the key attributes of the JMR airframe. First flights are expected in mid-Fiscal 2017. In the second phase, these aircraft will be fitted with mission systems and used to demonstrate a common avionics architecture developed separately.

 

The open, plug-and-play systems architecture, work on which has already begun, will include an advanced cockpit, integrated aircraft survivability equipment and manned/unmanned teaming. The common architecture is intended to reduce sustainment costs by being hardware-independent and scalable across different platform sizes.

 

Although Amrdec says it has funds for two demonstrators, industry is concerned there will only be enough money for one if the Army stays in a “business-as-usual” mode, say executives here. Chase says costs will be driven by two factors: the technologies selected for flight-testing and the size of the demonstrator, which has to be of sufficient scale to be relevant to the utility mission, as the Black Hawk makes up the bulk of the Army’s helicopters. “Right now it’s a fairly low-cost program,” says Snider.

 

The Vertical Lift Consortium (VLC) leadership met late last week to decide how to respond to the pending solicitation for JMR configuration studies amid signs the Army could be backing off from working with the organization. The consortium was formed to speed the development and fielding of rotorcraft technologies by waiving normal procurement rules and encouraging established primes to work with innovative suppliers.

 

“The consortium was set up as a way for the services to communicate with industry,” says Chase. “I am sure certain tasks are best left to traditional contracting and others by arrangement with the VLC. We’ll take it case by case.”

 

Phil Dunford, Boeing’s chief operating officer for rotorcraft systems, says the JMR tech demo is an opportunity for the U.S. rotorcraft industry to work together. “If we keep doing things the way we used to, we’ll get what we used to get. It’s time to step up and put our heads together on what we collaborate on and compete on in Phase 2.”

 

Snider, meanwhile, highlights the challenge ahead in transitioning JMR from technology demonstration to development and production. “The only way to get to JMR is to demonstrate a return on investment. We have to show that extending the current fleet out for 30 years is unsustainable.” To that end, the Army is working to determine flight-hour costs for each of its aircraft. “We’ll throw those into the mix for JMR,” he says.

 

With Robert Wall in London.

 

 

  U.S. Army OH-58D Kiowa Warrior ⓒ USAF

 

  U.S. Army OH-58D Kiowa Warrior ⓒ U.S. Army

 

  U.S. Army UH-1N Iroquios ⓒ USAF

 

  U.S. Army UH-1N Iroquios ⓒ USAF

 

  U.S. Army CH-47F Chinook ⓒ USAF

 

U.S. Marine Corps UH-1 Huey ⓒ USAF

  U.S. Marine Corps CH-46E Sea Knight ⓒ USMC