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	Director, Operational Test & Evaluation
	FY98 Annual Report

SYSTEM DESCRIPTION & CONTRIBUTION TO JOINT VISION 2010

The RAH-66 Comanche is an advanced twin turbine, two seat (tandem) light attack/armed reconnaissance helicopter currently being developed for the U.S. Army by a joint venture comprising Boeing Helicopters and Sikorsky Aircraft. The Comanche features a five-bladed bearingless main rotor, a shrouded tail rotor, a low radar cross-section composite fuselage with retractable weapons pylons, a fly-by-wire flight control system, and a fully integrated cockpit. The mission equipment package incorporates forward-looking infrared and image-intensified television sensors for night flying and target acquisition. The Comanche will initially be armed with the Semi-Active Laser Hellfire missile, the air-to-air Stinger missile, 2.75 inch aerial rockets, and a turreted 20-mm gun.

The Comanche is intended to replace the current fleet of AH-1 and OH-58 helicopters in all air cavalry troops and light division attack helicopter battalions, and supplement the AH-64 Apache in heavy division/corps attack helicopter battalions.

The Comanche will provide armed reconnaissance and light attack capability for attack helicopter and air cavalry units. The Comanche is a dominant maneuver platform that leverages information superiority and precision engagement to provide an element of full-dimensional protection to the ground maneuver force.

The Comanche program is currently in a program definition/risk reduction phase. First flight of the aircraft occurred in January 1996, and DT is proceeding in accordance with the TEMP. The program should enter the EMD stage following a Milestone (MS) II decision in 1QFY02. The full-rate production decision is scheduled for 1QFY07.

A Comanche Maintainability Demonstration was conducted on Prototype Aircraft #2 in July 1998.

The Comanche TEMP is currently being revised to reflect approved program restructuring (July 1998). The emerging OT&E strategy is expected to employ an innovative combination of simulation and actual flight activities. Several phases of testing will support various program decisions. In addition, the revised strategy provides three to four production-like Comanches to participate in user field exercises such as the "Corps 04" related digitization experiments.

The major goal of this eight-year evaluation program is to clearly establish the operational effectiveness and suitability of the Comanche helicopter, with particular emphasis on situational awareness, survivability, lethality, and sustainability. In order to maximize the likelihood that timely and relevant information will be available to decision makers, a baseline evaluation strategy is being pursued that will provide a series of relative comparisons of the combat potential of the Comanche and the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior. The scope of side-by-side operational testing for baseline comparison is being considered. The Army is exploring the merits of using a Mission Success Template methodology to support the evaluation of unit effectiveness in the security (reconnaissance, guard, cover, and screen) and light attack missions. The dialogue between DOT&E and the Army regarding this issue continues.

DOT&E has continued to work with the Army to refine this test strategy further. In addition, DOT&E has monitored ongoing DT such as flight-testing of the first prototype aircraft and the FY98 Comanche Maintainability Demonstration using the second prototype aircraft for early operational insights. These events are discussed in the following section.

There have been no Comanche LFT&E events to date. The LFT&E strategy includes: component-level MS II exit criteria tests, EMD component-level tests soon after MS II, and full-up, system-level tests of a production configured Comanche before MS III. A number of ballistic tests will be conducted during the current phase as part of the risk reduction program. DOT&E is reviewing the results of these tests, as they will contribute to the Comanche LFT&E and the overall system evaluation. In addition, Directed Energy Weapons are expected to challenge this and other systems in the future. Based on these expectations, Directed Energy Weapons are expected to be a significant aspect of the Comanche LFT&E.

Although there were no OT-specific events in 1998, evaluation of the results from flight-testing and the maintainability demonstration contributed to a better understanding of the Comanche's anticipated operational capabilities. A comparison of the flight envelope of the prototype aircraft (as demonstrated in DT) to the flight envelope of the OH-58D shows improvement. As an example, increases in forward, rearward and lateral airspeeds allow the Comanche to takeoff and hover at higher cross-wind speeds than the OH-58D with attendant improvements in maneuverability and controllability. However, flight-testing also revealed a noticeable tail buffet as the aircraft's speed reached 80 to 100 knots. Although this does not directly affect flight safety, it is clearly undesirable from the user's perspective. Wind tunnel testing has demonstrated a promising solution (reshaped pylon) that will be flight-tested in 1999.

The maintainability demonstration was similarly valuable in providing an early understanding of the aircraft's operational suitability. The Comanche is required to provide better sustainability-that is, fly at a higher operational tempo-than the OH-58D. Designing the aircraft to be easily maintained will be central to meeting this requirement. The mean time to repair essential items (MTR-E=1 hour) was used as the benchmark for this demonstration. Twenty-two percent of the maintenance tasks in this demonstration required significantly more time than predicted. Fifteen percent of the maintenance tasks required 10 percent more time than predicted. Maintainability features of the aircraft will require improvements to meet the MTR-E target of one hour. Insights gleaned from the maintainability demonstration are being analyzed to determine where smart improvements can be applied prior to the system entering EMD.