the Lakota’s deployment readiness is higher, more spare parts are available and fewer maintenance hours are required.”
Rollie added, “In terms of operational capabilities, the Huey had its advantages, such as carrying capacity. On a good day, the UH-1 could carry eight or nine soldiers. With the Lakota, I’m challenged with carrying more than four fully loaded soldiers without sacrificing fuel. Once I carry less fuel on board, I can carry more soldiers. However, this does have a direct impact on my range and station time. Replicating air assault training is thus made more difficult.” This is a surprising claim, given the fact that the 2007 Lakota Operational Test and Evaluation Report stated, “The Lakota provides 40% more payload and mission duration than the UH-1H aircraft it replaces.”
Nevertheless, the replacement of the Huey for the Lakota was necessary. “Eventually, the fleet reached a crossover point where the Huey got so old that they needed to be renewed,” Rollie said. “That was when the Lakota came into the picture.” Coincidentally, the Airbus Helicopters’ H145 final assembly line – the civilian version of the Lakota – is located in Donauwörth, less than a hundred miles from Hohenfels Army Air Field. However, the Lakota aircraft are built at the Airbus Helicopters facility in Columbus, Mississippi.
According to the Falcon team commander, there is an indirect link between the German and U.S. production lines. “Most parts are manufactured in and around Donauwörth, but they still have to go to the United States to enter the U.S. Army supply system. Once those parts have been booked into the U.S. Army supply system, they come to us.”
SMALL FLEET AVAILABILITY
According to the 2010 Light Utility Helicopter Selected Acquisition, the JMRC would receive 10 UH-72As. The Lakota also became the primary trainer for the Army. “Sometimes new pilots aren’t nice to the aircraft they train on,” Rollie said. “This created shortages of airframes at the locations where we train. When the shortages where we train manifested, they took aircraft from places that have less need.”
According to the CO, this does not adversely affect the performance of the JMRC’s mission. “Eight is a fine number for the mission we have, and we’re likely to maintain this number of airframes in the future. If we had more exercises where the need is for us to travel abroad, then I would be challenged. However, I rarely run an exercise where I take my referees and fly to France or Germany to watch their Army.”
The Lakota is built to operate in non-combat environments for logistics and support missions and is a very suitable, cost- efficient platform with a high operational availability rate. The colonel adds, “For the Army, we require an 85% fully mission- ready rating, and normally we are well above that. Our fleet flies between 3,000 and 4,000 flight hours a year. Each pilot must do 70 hours per year. Most of our pilots are probably doing around 100 hours a year. That’s low compared to some of the other airframe standards.”
THE BEST WAY TO MOVE SKID TYPE HELICOPTERS
A Lakota conducts a pinnacle landing. “The Red Air missions are the most dynamic missions to fly,” Col. Beau Rollie said.
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