Navy and Army Team on Replacement Helicopter Buy

NAVAIR, PATUXENT RIVER, Md. --- NAVAIR is teaming with the Army to buy five new H-72 Lakota helicopters for the United States Naval Test Pilot School located here.>> The helicopter, the H-72, will replace is the Vietnam-era TH-6B Cayuse helicopter used by the Test Pilot School since the early 1990s. The youngest of the TPS TH-6s were built for the Army in 1968. The six TH-6s have served TPS very well over their 17 years of service but they were tired aircraft and in real need of replacement, said CAPT James Glass, Commanding Officer, U.S. Naval Test Pilot School. We are working towards accepting the Lakotas at TPS in 2009.>> The Army has a $3 billion contract with EADS North America to buy 345 of the H-72s for their Light Utility Helicopter replacement program. NAVAIR is working with the Army to use this same contract to buy the five Lakotas for TPS, said Capt. James G. Wallace, Program Manager for the Support and Commercial Derivative Aircraft Program Office (PMA-207). NAVAIRs cost for the five Lakotas and their support and maintenance costs total approximately $30 million.>> This program is a great opportunity for further cooperation between the U.S. Navy and the Army in the area of aviation. The success of the Light Utility Helicopter program makes this possible by being able to provide the necessary aircraft in the desired timeframe without any affect on the Armys needs and requirements, said Col. Neil Thurgood, Project Manager Utility Helicopters, U.S. Army.>> The H-72 Lakota is a commercial off-the-shelf Eurocopter EC-145. Adding a flight test data collection package is the only modification required to meet TPS requirements. The TPS Lakotas will also have air conditioning, jettison-able crew doors, underwater locator beacon, Traffic Collision Avoidance System, a fixed beam cargo hook, and upgraded skid steps, all are standard options available on the EC-145.