The United Kingdom's National Armaments Director Group has awarded a £879 million (approximately $1.1 billion) three-year contract to Boeing Defence UK to maintain and support the British Army's AH-64E Apache attack helicopters and the Royal Air Force's Chinook HC heavy-lift

I have to say as much as I think my country is a dumpsterfire, the Apache and Chinook are probably the two best platforms the UK could invest in for defense and security especially in littoral contexts. Consider that the UK has retained the ability to produce light/medium utility helicopters with the Leonardo facility, these two platforms perfectly compliment the type of helicopters the UK can produce domestically currently.

  • Baggins@beehaw.orgEnglish
    4·
    3 days ago

    That makes sense at the moment, but we need to develop similar helicopters in conjunction with Europe, wean ourselves off off US military equipment.

    • supersquirrel@sopuli.xyzOP
      1·
      3 days ago

      Yeah, the issue is Europe hasn’t really invested in heavy helicopter design. Many of the major military powers in Europe seem to have been convinced attack helicopters were obsolete in a near-peer military conflict for decades, and I think it has created a large blindspot that is only now being addressed by the AW249 and acquisitions like the UK and Poland adopting a large numbers of AH64s.

      The AW149 can do a lot of things, but I am skeptical somebody can make a better Chinook or Apache. They were both extremely forward looking designs when they appeared ~60 years ago and all of that time up until now has only given these airframes time to be iterated and improved. The leap to making these platforms unmanned capable is already happening with significant milestones achieved with the Chinook recently.

      I mean, yeah I get it though the US is out of control right now but the US understood the way helicopters fundamentally changed warfare a long time ago and Europe can’t magically make up for all that lost time in working a design to maturity that was spent denying the decisiveness of rotarywing/VTOL Close Air Support while the US invested in it.

      Can Europe even produce a heavy lift helicopter in the class that the Chinook is?

      • Baggins@beehaw.orgEnglish
        1·
        2 days ago

        It’s not going to be quick whatever it is. Personally I think unmanned is the way to go.

        • supersquirrel@sopuli.xyzOP
          1·
          2 days ago

          The Chinook is already capable of unmanned maneuvers, there is no need to make an aircraft that large without the possibility of human control directly.