Army orders as many as 32 Boeing CH-47 Chinook heavy-lift helicopters in $713.9 million deal
REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala., 25 March 2015. U.S. Army aviation experts are ordering as many as 32 Boeing CH-47 Chinook multi-mission, heavy-lift transport helicopters under terms of a $713.9 million contract announced earlier this month.
Officials of the Army Contracting Command at Redstone Arsenal, Ala., are asking the Boeing Co. Defense, Space & Security segment in Ridley Park, Pa., to provide 26 remanufactured CH-47 helicopters, four new CH-47 helicopters, and the option to build two additional CH-47s.
The CH-47F is an advanced multi-mission helicopter for the U.S. Army and international defense forces. It contains an integrated, digital cockpit management avionics, common aviation architecture cockpit, and advanced cargo-handling.
The Chinook's primary mission is to move troops, artillery, ammunition, fuel, water, barrier materials, supplies, and equipment on the battlefield. Its secondary missions include medical evacuation, disaster relief, search and rescue, aircraft recovery, fire fighting, parachute drops, heavy construction, and civil development.
Under the U.S. Army Modernization Program, new-build CH-47F began deliveries in 2006. Under the same program, CH-47Ds are being upgraded to remanufactured CH-47F aircraft.
The twin-rotor CH-47F Chinook is 52 feet long, 12.4 feet wide, nearly 19 feet tall. It has two 60-foot-diameter rotors and has two Honeywell T55-GA-714A engines. The rotorcraft can lift 24,000 pounds, fly as fast as 170 knots at ranges to 200 nautical miles, and can fly as high as 20,000 feet.
With a crew of three, the CH-47s can transport 44 seated troops or 24 casualty litters. The aircraft can carry palletized cargo internally, including the U.S. Army HMMWV, or sling-loaded external cargo, using its triple cargo hooks for stability.
The CH-47’s triple-hook system stabilizes large external loads like the 155-millimeter howitzers, and can fly these loads at speeds to 140 knots. The helicopter can deliver external loads like fuel blivets to three separate destinations in one sortie.
On this contract Boeing will do the work in Ridley Park, Pa., and should be finished by the end of 2020. For more information contact Boeing Defense, Space & Security online at www.boeing.com/boeing/bds, or the Army Contracting Command-Redstone at www.acc.army.mil/contractingcenters/acc-rsa.
John Keller | Editor
John Keller is editor-in-chief of Military & Aerospace Electronics magazine, which provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronic and optoelectronic technologies in military, space, and commercial aviation applications. A member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since the magazine's founding in 1989, Mr. Keller took over as chief editor in 1995.
