US Army OOB

[Shadowcougar]

I as wondering about the US Army OOB. There is a lack of National Guard units listed.
The is NG Mech and Lt Mech, Tank, and Artty units but no Engineers, Cav, or Helo units.

The NG 30th Heavy Brigade that left NC for the Iraq and returnd had the Engineer and Cav units. The Attack Helo unit didn't go to Iraq.

Was hoping some could help fix that. I was hoping to do a campaign involing a US NG unit and its a huge difference between the Reg Cav units and the NG Armour units.

[kevin]

I'm working on doing an Army oob covering 1990 - 2020, but it's likely to be a human user only thing. (This is my first time, I'm not good enough to make the oob AI-pick friendly). I planned on Engineer and Helo units (in fact most Army Helo units are now reserve and guard if I'm not mistaken) I can include CAV too if you like, but you'll have to tell me what the TO&E difference is.

[Shadowcougar]

none I can see. the unit is a Cav troop and just with the NG as far as I can find out. all the 30th HSB eqipment is stored in Raeford, NC or at Bragg

[danrh]

from defence-aerospace

Bell Submits Bid for US Army's 368 Aircraft Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter Program


(Source: Bell Helicopter; issued June 24, 2005)


FORT WORTH, TX. --- Bell Helicopter today submitted a bid for a militarized version of its enormously successful Bell 407 single engine light helicopter in response to a Request For Proposal (RFP) issued by the U.S. Army for an Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter (ARH).

The ARH decision, expected in late July, calls for a total of 368 aircraft to be delivered between fiscal years 2006 through 2011.

Bell Helicopter believes its Bell 407 is the perfect aircraft for meeting the Army's current and future ARH mission requirements. The Bell ARH, which will be built at Bell's Military Assembly and Integration Center in Amarillo, Texas, will draw from a large and talented supplier base for its sophisticated sensors, weapons and defensive systems.

In anticipation of the bid proposal, Bell has been flying an ARH demonstrator helicopter at the company's XworX facility to flight test handling qualities for the aircraft.

The ARH will replace the Army's OH-58D Kiowa Warrior, armed reconnaissance helicopter which has proven to be one of the most reliable and capable combat aircraft in the history of US Army aviation. Bell designed and performed the systems integration on the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior, the Army's first fully digitized helicopter which has accumulated over 1.1 million hours of flight time, including 200,000 combat flight hours.

Bell Helicopter is teamed with a number of world-class aerospace suppliers in support of the ARH program in the areas of Mission Equipment Package (MEP) and training systems integration. Rockwell Collins, Honeywell, FLIR Systems, L-3, Flight Safety (FSI) and Computer Sciences Corporation round out Bell Helicopter's team in bringing the best of industry to the Bell ARH program for the Army.

Capable of being equipped with a wide variety of weapons, the Bell ARH will provide the Army with exceptional mission versatility and flexibility to accomplish the armed reconnaissance, light attack, troop insertion, and special operations missions with a single aircraft. The Bell ARH will provide this flexibility during the day and at night as well as during adverse weather or periods of poor visibility.

The Bell ARH provides the Army's aeroscouts survivability features that include low IR signature; warning and active countermeasures; armor protection of crew and flight critical systems; and unsurpassed crashworthy improvements and the ability to carry three Warfighters. These features increase the likelihood of survival in the most extreme battlefield conditions.

The Bell ARH will be powered by the Honeywell HTS900 turbine engine that is based on proven, mature commercial and U.S. Army T800 technology and design. In additional to being designed for extremely low Direct Operating Costs (DOC), the HTS900 turbine engine will be equipped with a sophisticated dual-channel full authority digital engine control (FADEC) system, based on T800 technology. The HTS900 provides the power needed today with growth to accommodate changing missions and mission equipment packages expected in the future.

One of the key requirements of the Army's RFP is deployability. Two Bell ARH helicopters can be deployed aboard a C-130 and be unloaded, flyable and ready to fight within 15 minutes.

The Bell ARH will be supported by Bell's industry-leading product support organization with over 180 locations throughout the world. The Bell 407 is one of most popular and reliable aircraft in the commercial helicopter market. Since its FAA certification in February 1996, Bell has delivered 625 Bell 407's to customers throughout the world, making it the fastest selling turbine powered civil helicopter in history. In fact, Bell demonstrated its capability for high production rates with the 407 by producing 140 aircraft per year in both 1997 and 1998.

The 407 has proven to be the perfect aircraft for customers in virtually every conceivable helicopter market including: Corporate, Law Enforcement, EMS, Electronic News Gathering and Utility. Operators fly Bell 407 helicopters in over 50 countries around the world. The current fleet of Bell 407 helicopters has logged over 1.25 million flight hours, with the high time aircraft topping 10,000 flight hours.

Bell Helicopter is a subsidiary of Textron Inc. Textron Inc. is a $10 billion multi-industry company with 44,000 employees in 40 countries.

-ends-

[Mobhack]

In future, could we have a brief summary, and then the URL to the report?.

Cheers
Andy

[danrh]

I searched the Bell site for the press release but couldn't find it and if one posts a link to a defence-aerospace story it just takes you to the d-a main page not the story itself, something to do with frame I think?

Daniel

[MarkSheppard]

Linka

EADS North America selected to provide U.S. Army’s Light Utility Helicopter

UH-145 to be produced in Columbus, Mississippi

Arlington, Virginia, June 30, 2006 — EADS North America today announced that the EADS North America today announced that the UH-145 military helicopter has been selected by the U.S. Army as its next-generation Light Utility Helicopter (LUH). The LUH requirement is for up to 352 aircraft with a potential total program life-cycle value of $3 billion.

The LUH award is a continuation of EADS' 20-year heritage as a helicopter supplier to U.S. national and homeland security agencies including the Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Coast Guard, Customs and Border Protection, DEA and the FBI. The decision, announced today by the U.S. Army, marks EADS North America’s first major system win as a prime contractor for the U.S. military.


"We're pleased that the UH-145 was chosen by the U.S. Army for this important mission and gratified that this selection demonstrates the service's confidence in our ability to meet the fast-paced delivery schedule and support requirements of these critical Army aircraft," said Ralph D. Crosby, Jr., EADS North America's Chairman and CEO. "We look forward to a long association with the U.S. Army....

[MarkSheppard]

F-35 JSF has been named the Lightning II

[MarkSheppard]

Linka

(Snipping the full article to a short version)

August 8, 2006: All future MLRS rockets will be "smart" (GPS guided), and older, unguided rockets, will be upgraded to "smart" status.

...

There have been no reliability problems with the GMLRS, which has a range of 70 kilometers and, because of the GPS guidance, it has the same accuracy at any range. Unguided rockets become less accurate the farther they go.

What makes the GMLRS most useful is not just its accuracy, which is about the same as air force JDAM GPS guided smart bombs, but because the 200 pound GMLRS warhead produces a smaller bang than the smallest JDAM (500 pounds). When it comes to urban fighting, smaller is better. Less collateral damage, and your troops can be closer to the target when the explosion occurs.

....

In order to get more GMLRS, all new MLRS production is being switched to GMLRS, and a retrofit kit, that will turn unguided MLRS rockets into GMLRS, has been introduced. The army believes that GMLRS will remain the most useful smart weapon, even with the introduction, later this year, of the hundred pound 155mm GPS guided Excalibur artillery shell, and the U.S. Air Force's 250 pound JDAM (the SDB, or small diameter bomb).

[MarkSheppard]

From a Defense Analyst friend: Stuart Slade

MTHEL is actually doing quite well. My understanding is that the pre-production systems are due to be deployed in 2009, only a year behind schedule. They were going to go to Korea but I guess Iraq is a better bet now.

Basically, battlefield lasers will arrive pretty soon (at least for the US)

This has some game engine implications for WinMBT. You can actually now shoot down artillery shells and rockets in flight; I don't know how you could represent this, except as a special "counterbattery" class which can intercept rockets, etc.