Leonardo Helicopters
Leonardo Helicopters’ website (
www.leonardocompany.com) describes its manned AW249 attack rotorcraft, which hosts a 20 mm cannon plus six wing-store stations for fuel tanks and ordnance, as “the only new combat helicopter currently being designed.” The company’s next-generation military portfolio is fleshed out by AWHERO, a helicopter-like multi-mission drone with a “useful payload” of 187 pounds (85 kg).
“AW249 is being developed under an Italian Army’s contract to replace the fleet of AW129 exploration and escort helicopters and is offered to the international market,” a Leonardo Helicopters spokesperson said. “It allows aircraft in this class to perform a leap forward in human-machine interface, maintainability, survivability, situational awareness in a network-centric warfare battlefield, and growth potential with also MUM-T capabilities.”
Regarding AWHERO, “This multi-role rotorcraft unmanned systems under development is bound for certification, perfectly suited to meet a range of market requirements,” the spokesperson told Rotorcraft Pro. “It benefits from the unique combination of
rotary-wing platform and system/sensor integration capabilities at Leonardo, allowing the company to enter a new, promising market as part of its system design road map evolution strategy, which includes smart helicopters, fast rotorcraft and rotorcraft unmanned systems.”
Looking to the future, the Leonardo Helicopters spokesperson expects both manned and unmanned military rotaries will achieve big advances in design and capabilities that are similar to what’s happening with fixed-wing assets. The spokesperson also predicts that rotaries will benefit from advances in AI and capability to fly autonomously, and that “fast rotorcraft, mainly through the U.S. DoD Future Vertical Lift program, will see the adoption of innovative architectures to support evolving requirements resulting from recent military doctrine advances, mainly around the multi-domain operations (MDO) concept.”
The challenges in making this happen will be technological and operational in a way that is affordable and reliable to support the warfighter on the battlefield, the spokesperson observed. “More for less is the big point that industry will need to address as it evolves into the future solutions it is developing now.”
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Sept/Oct 2021
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