直升机需要升级才能“更安静，用更少的飞机”执行特殊行动：PEO 旋转翼

TAMPA, Fla. — US special operations helicopters must be significantly upgraded to successfully handle future stealth operations “quieter” and using fewer aircraft, Program Executive Officer for Rotary Wing Steve Smith said Thursday.

“We all saw the events in January, and incredible capability demonstrated, but it took immense numbers of aircraft and layered effects,” Smith said at the SOF Week expo here, referring to Operation Absolute Resolve in which the US captured Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela. “We’ve got to be able to do that quieter with fewer aircraft, so we need holistic systems that are on the aircraft that can generate those layered effects.”

Special Operations Command’s fleet of MH-60Ms and MH-47Gs — operated by the 160th Nightstalkers Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR) — could benefit from technology injections coming from the MV-75 Cheyenne platform due to enter service with SOF in the mid-2030s, he noted.

“To date, we have done a lot of early risk reduction activities for the SOF-peculiar integration. The Army is bringing a very capable airplane, and we’re going to put very capable special mission equipment on board, so that the air crews and operators can get into the places that they need to get into,” he noted.

“The Army looked at the work we did, and they said, ‘Hey, this is good. We want this on all of them,’” Smith continued. “They accepted those into the baseline, so every MV-75 is going to have those structural requirements, which is good news for everybody. A lot of modularity, a lot of room for growth now.”

However, currently SOF is focused on MV-75’s digital integration, with much of the special operations mission equipment not designed to fit into a digital backbone or time-sensitive networks, Smith said.

Smith suggested this ongoing MV-75 integration work could also lead to a common cockpit, not only for SOF but also the wider US Army.

“But I want to be clear. There’s no funding that’s been appropriated for that,” he concluded.