Army asks Boeing to build new CH-47F Chinook heavy-lift helicopters and avionics in $497.1 million deal
REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala. – U.S. Army aviation experts are ordering an unspecified number of Boeing CH-47F Chinook multi-mission heavy-lift transport helicopters under terms of a $497.1 million contract announced in December.
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 the twin-rotor helicopters.
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.
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, CH-47 helicopters can transport 44 seated troops or 24 wounded warfighters on stretchers. The aircraft can carry palletized cargo internally, including the U.S. Army Humvee light vehicle, 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 as fast as 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 at locations to be determined with each order, and should be finished by December 2025. For more information contact Boeing Defense, Space & Security online at www.boeing.com/company/about-bds, or the Army Contracting Command-Redstone at https://acc.army.mil/contractingcenters/acc-rsa.
John Keller | Editor-in-Chief
John Keller is the Editor-in-Chief, Military & Aerospace Electronics Magazine--provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronics and optoelectronic technologies in military, space and commercial aviation applications. John has been a member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since 1989 and chief editor since 1995.
