Special Operations unit on verge of fielding most advanced Chinook helicopter ever - The Washington Post: Members of the Army’s 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment are known for flying Navy SEALs, Army Rangers and other elite members of the U.S. military into combat at a moment’s notice, even when they might take fire themselves. But they sometimes do so with twin-rotor Chinook helicopters that have been in use for years, and are looking to modernize.
The regiment, famously known as the Night Stalkers, recently received the first of eight “new-build” MH-47G Chinooks from manufacturer Boeing as part of a $300 million contract. The helicopters include advanced flight controls, improved agility and a tougher airframe that is machined as one piece, rather built piece-by-piece from sheet metal. They also include larger fuel tanks that increase the aircraft’s range.
The regiment has flown the “G” model for about a decade, but this one is different, said Steve Parker, Boeing’s vice president for cargo helicopters and the manager of its H-47 production. Whereas other MH-47Gs were rebuilt from earlier MH-47 “D” and “E” models of the aircraft, these were built from the ground up, with Special Operations communications gear and avionics incorporated.
“It’s going to be a 100-year aircraft before it’s done,” Parker said of the Chinook during an interview at the annual conference of the Association of the United States Army in Washington. “We’re just continuing to implement new technology on it.”
