The latest generation AW169 AAS military helicopter was officially unveiled at the Army Aviation Association of America Annual Professional Forum and Exposition in Fort Worth, Texas.
The helicopter is designed to perform a wide range of US Army’s present and future Armed Reconnaissance missions including aerial escort, command and control, security operations, deep operations, target acquisition and targeting, fire support coordination.
It is fitted with two PW210A engines for operating in ‘hot & high’ conditions and the engine and blades are designed to reduce heat and noise signature.
A fully integrated aircraft and mission management system is based on latest avionics comprising a low workload/high situational awareness single pilot IFR and NVG compatible glass cockpit with an integrated control and display system that features three large multifunctional displays and touch screen technology.
The AW169 is fitted with a damage and ballistic tolerant fail safe airframe and rotorcraft system and features multiple redundancies of all critical systems, excellent one engine inoperative (O.E.I.) capability, a 30 minutes ‘run-dry’ capable transmission, self-sealing crashworthy fuel system, crashworthy airframe and seating, heavy duty landing gear and armor protection for crew, fuel system and vital components as well as an advanced integrated self-defence suite.
Avionics also includes an integrated 4-axis digital AFCS, advanced communications and data management system, a comprehensive sensors suite, synthetic vision and Helmet Mounted Display (HMD) / Head-up Display (HUD).
The weapon systems consists of machine guns, rocket launchers and air-to-ground missiles. All four prototypes already exceeding a total of more than 200 flight hours in nine months for development testing.
The AW169 program is on time to enter the market in 2014.
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