Army shifting aviation focus from unmanned to manned.

The role of Army helicopters in Iraq as combat workhorses has bolstered the notion that rotary-wing aircraft, for most missions, are unlikely to be replaced by unmanned vehicles.

The upshot is a renewed emphasis on long-term investments in research and development for manned aviation, which has suffered in recent years, as funding flowed to unmanned programs.

The experience in Iraq also has spurred upgrade programs for current helicopters, in areas such as sensors and survivability, officials said.

Hundreds of millions of dollars will be needed to not only improve current technologies in support of helicopters, but also to repair at least 600 aircraft that will be coming back from Iraq and will need to be restored and returned to the front lines within a year.

Another reason why the Army is paying renewed attention to manned aviation is the anticipated need for a heavy-lift helicopter than can carry several times more payload than the CH-47 Chinook.

The Defense Department and the military services are evaluating concept studies for a "joint vertical airlift" program. A decision on the project's future could come within the next several months, said Maj. Gen. Joseph Bergantz, Army program executive officer for aviation.

The Army gradually is seeing a "shift in focus from unmanned to manned" aviation, Bergantz told the Helicon conference, hosted by the Institute for Defense and Government Advancement. "There is a push to reinvigorate science and technology strategic investments in manned aviation," he said. "Perhaps the pendulum swung too Far in favor of unmanned systems."

This is good news for aviation, he said. "That's the most encouraging thing I've seen" in a long time.

It now appears that the Army wants to "reorient efforts to JTR, or joint tactical rotorcraft," said John M. Davis, chief of advanced aviation design at the Army Research, Development and Engineering Command.

During the past two years, "out work has been very 'unmanned-centric,'" Davis said at the conference. "Within the last few months, I think we have been really trying to evolve back into a balance between the manned and the unmanned systems."

UAVs are important to the Army, even though they will not necessarily replace manned helicopters, but rather will be employed as part of "manned unmanned" aviation teams, he said. The goal is to "develop technology that will support both manned and unmanned, recognizing that teaming and collaboration are going to be key elements in how the future force will be fighting."

Army Col. William Gavora, commander of the Aviation Applied Technology Directorate, said the capabilities of UAVs have been overestimated. "There is a general misperception in the country that UAVs can do everything that manned aircraft do," he said in a presentation to the Defense News ISR Integration conference.

"I do not share that opinion," Gavora said. "UAVs do not have the curiosity or the intuition or the judgment to make decisions.... But if we learn these things properly, the synergy will be greater than operating independently."

To reflect the changing priorities, the RDE Command is rewriting the aviation science and technology strategic plan, said Davis. The Army is seeking input from the other services to develop a "joint vision of the future."

The Army is responsible for all Defense Department science and technology rotorcraft work, Davis noted. "We want to live up to that obligation."

The current fleets of Apaches, Black Hawks, Kiowa Warriors and Chinooks, meanwhile, could benefit from "technology insertion" to address pressing problems, such as poor visibility in dust storms and poor logistics support, said Gary S. Nenninger, Army project manager for aviation systems.

Aviation logistics is a "hot button issue," Nenninger said at the IDGA forum.

Maintaining and supporting aircraft in Iraq is dirty work. Not only are the conditions inherently detrimental to helicopters--particularly the fine moon-dust that penetrates every nook and cranny--but aviators also lack adequate tools to manage spare parts and aircraft components.

The Army is working on a "global common support system," to be fielded in 2006, said Nenninger. But efforts also are under way to improve logistics in the near term, he added.

The commander of an Apache battalion during Operation Iraqi Freedom, Lt. Col. Dan Williams, told the IDGA conference that his unit, as well as the entire Apache fleet deployed in Iraq, had problems with "support, maintenance and power generation." Until logistics support improves, the aviation units will suffer, "no matter how technologically advanced we are," Williams said.

Helicopter accidents resulting from "brownouts" continue to plague the Army, Bergantz said.

About 75 percent of all accidents in Iraq and Afghanistan have been caused by brownouts, with Black Hawks and Chinooks having the most problems. The Army is evaluating new sensors and training techniques to help pilots survive in these dangerous sandstorms.

RELATED ARTICLE: Logistics reforms aim to fix supply bottlenecks.

A team of logistics experts from the U.S. Transportation Command and other agencies will be heading to Iraq this month, in an attempt to break long-standing logjams in the distribution of supplies to forward-deployed units.

The effort is part of a broader initiative by the Defense Department to improve the delivery of combat gear and spare parts to Iraq, a highly fragmented process that has been plagued by inefficiencies, officials said.

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld last fall directed Gen. John Handy, the commander of TRANSCOM, and Michael Wynne, the undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, to work together and fix the problem. Wynne oversees the Defense Logistics Agency.

The team assigned to work in Iraq will set up a Deployment and Distribution Operation Center, and will perform functions that TRANSCOM typically executes from the continental United States, Handy said in a speech to the 2003 Defense Logistics Conference, in Washington, D.C.

The DDOC will "arm the J-4 [logistics commander] in the theater with the things he needs to get the job done," Handy said. "This is not going to be the 100 percent solution," but it will be a step in the right direction.

The long-term plan, meanwhile, is to fundamentally restructure the way supplies are managed and transported, said Patricia M. Young, deputy director for strategies and policy at TRANSCOM.

"We want to bring about changes in the distribution process ... bring a little more authority and focus," she told National Defense.

Rumsfeld made it clear that he wants "one single accountable person for distribution issues," she said.

Although DLA will continue to report to Wynne and will not be placed under the TRANSCOM chain of command, Handy will supervise the execution of the supply chain, said Young. He will be advised by representatives from DLA and the services, but only Handy will be in charge of "orchestrating" the process, she explained.

The reforms that Rumsfeld mandated are "not necessarily through organizational change, but through putting one person in charge."

At the core of the logistics problems are the "seams and handoffs" in the system, Young noted.

When supplies are shipped from the United States to Iraq, for example, they arrive in Kuwait relatively quickly, but then sit in containers until they can be sorted out and ground transportation to Iraq can be arranged. The delays have undermined soldiers' confidence in the system, forcing them to work around the supply shortages often by obtaining equipment from local vendors or cannibalizing parts from other vehicles.

Epitomizing the logistics woes experienced in Iraq are the Army aviation units, which often cannot get spare parts to fix their helicopters, said Lt. Col. Jeffrey Crabb, product manager for Army scout and attack helicopters. During a recent visit to Iraq, the only complaints he heard from aviators concerned "logistics and lack of spare parts," he said at an industry conference hosted by the Institute for Defense and Government Advancement. "Every platform over there is having those kinds of problems," said Crabb. "We can get the spare parts to Kuwait fast. The problem is moving them to the units"

The fragmented nature of the supply chain is to blame for this, said Young. TRANSCOM arranges for sea or air transportation to Kuwait, but once the supplies arrive, the responsibility for theater distribution shifts to U.S. Central Command, and TRANSCOM no longer has "visibility" of the location or status of those supplies.

"Instead of everyone managing their little piece of the pie, the key is to bring all the stakeholders together and determine what is the best way to flow end on end," said Young. "Maybe you need to hold the cargo at the consolidation point longer and sort containers by units, instead of having lots of destinations for one unit in one container." Another option is to "take readily identifiable packages that indicate what unit it goes to," and ship those first.

TRANSCOM's job is to bring all the participants of the logistics supply chain together and figure out how to improve the process, Young said. "People are working hard enough. We have to work smarter."

Another element of the logistics reform envisioned by Handy is to develop a Web-based system that, like FedEx, would allow customers to track their packages. "The technology is there," said Young. The problem is the lack of integration between the technologies from each agency.

"What we have seen over time is folks automating their piece of it," she said. "Now, we want to look across the end to end supply chain, integrate the information so everyone operates off the same sheet of music."--Sandra I. Erwin

RELATED ARTICLE: Comanche review shrouded in secrecy.

The aircraft that once was labeled "the quarterback" of the Army's future force faces an uncertain fate.

The chief of staff of the Army, Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker, appointed a "review team" that met in recent months to discuss the future of Army aviation, and what is ahead for Comanche.

The program was cut in half (from 1,200 to about 600 helicopters) last year, to free up dollars for other weapon systems, but the debate now is not centered on how many aircraft the Army needs, but rather on how Comanche would fit into the overall Army aviation force structure.

Maj. Gen. Joseph Bergantz, Army program executive officer for aviation, was not part of the review team, and was not allowed to have any contact with any of the members of the panel, he told contractors attending the Helicon conference, hosted by the Institute for Defense and Government Advancement.

The team was scheduled to wrap up the review in mid-December and report back to Schoomaker. Originally, the panel had been meeting in Fort Rucker, Ala., but later moved to Fort Monroe, Va.

The Comanche review was so secretive that the panel members were sequestered and asked to sign "non-disclosure agreements," according to one industry source. "It was managed like a Special Forces covert operation," the industry official said.

Leading the team of about a dozen members was Brig. Gen. James D. Thurman, the commander of the Army National Training Center. A retired Army general who knows Thurman noted that, even though Thurman is a ground-force commander, he is "very experienced" in aviation. In line to become the commander of the 4th Infantry Division, Thurman is known to be among the "superstars" in the Army, said the retired general.

Only one representative from Bergantz' office participated in the meetings (the program manager for the Chinook), but, sworn to secrecy, he was not permitted to report back to Bergantz on any of the deliberations.

The industry source said that the most sensitive item in the Comanche review was the "operational and organizational" plan, which the Army calls O&O.

The current O&O document originally was approved in 1987. The Comanche was conceived in 1981, but has suffered delays and undergone major restructurings.

The program has been in development for so long that, even though it has not gone into full rate production yet, many of its electronics are obsolete, noted Gary S. Nenninger, project manager for aviation systems.

The Comanche program office, meanwhile, welcomed the news on December 5 that Lt. Gen. Richard A. Cody, Army deputy chief of staff and also an experienced aviator, flew the Comanche and gave the aircraft a stellar review.

According to sources who attended the event, Cody said that Comanche had "exceeded his expectations," and was particularly impressed by the rotor system, engine response and control.

Cody also reportedly said the aircraft was "easy to fly" and should be put into the hands of soldiers as soon as possible.--Sandra I. Erwin