Summary The MH-139A Grey Wolf replaces UH-1 Hueys with improved speed, range, and capabilities. Malstrom AFB receives first MH-139A, while Fairchild AFB retains aging UH-1s for training. MH-139A faces budget concerns triggering the Nunn-McCurdy review due to reduced purchases.
This week, the US Air Force received its first of at least 42 production MH-139A Grey Wolf multi-mission helicopters, which Boeing is the lead contractor on in partnership with Leonardo, the global helicopter manufacturer. Boeing’s MH-139As will serve as security patrol and VIP transport helicopters for the US Air Force. Replacing Some Timeless UH-1 Hueys For the US Air Force, the UH-1 Huey was able to meet its needs for VIP transport worldwide and support the security needs of its intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) fields for decades.
However, the MH-139A offers the US Air Force more range and speed with a 145 knot / 167 mph cruise speed plus a range of 890 miles. As Azeem Khan, MH-139 executive director and program manager shared in a Boeing statement, “This aircraft will directly support ongoing U.S.
Air Force modernization efforts. Delivering this asset for the MH-139A fleet is critical to the future of national security as the Grey Wolf will play a crucial role in the U.S.
nuclear triad for decades to come.” Malstrom Air Force Base in Montana will receive the first production MH-139A. However, other air force bases, like Fairchild Air Force Base in Washington State, will keep their aging UH-1 Huey helicopters used for survival school training, as some UH-1s have sufficient service life to perform the missions the US Air Force needs at Fairchild as photographed below.
But the MH-139A is being purchased in such low numbers as to exceed budgetary expectations. How is this so? MH-139A has triggered the Nunn-McCurdy review A Nunn-McCurdy review, required since 1982, is for when a US Defense Department program exceeds certain cost benchmarks. In the case of the MH-139A, the cost per unit due to the number of MH-139As bought being reduced was such that a review of the program’s costs became necessary.
For a program to survive such a review, the program has to be essential to national security – like guarding ICBM sites, there has to be a plan to control costs, and finally, new cost estimates must be reasonable. Keep up with the latest Simple Flying coverage of military aviation here According to an April 30 Air & Space Forces Magazine, the breach is “critical” or beyond 30% and requires the Secretary of Defense to certify the program’s need to continue. The plan is to purchase only 42 MH-139As – enough to support mission defense, stand up a training squadron in Alabama, and conduct testing.
Not the 80 planned to retire all of the UH-1 fleet to save $1.1 billion overall. So the final number of MH-139As the US Air Force plans to purchase is in flux.
About the MH-139A Grey Wolf The Boeing MH-139A Grey Wolf is based on Leonardo’s AW139. Leonardo happens to have a factory in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania so the aircraft is a US-build. Boeing then takes those AW139s and serves as the lead integrator, adding military spec equipment such as an AN/AAR-47 missile warning system, an AN/ALE-47 countermeasures dispenser set, mounts to hold machine guns, an infrared camera system for flying in the dark, a hoist, and up armoring of the aircraft.
One can learn more below: The US Air Force gets a new helicopter. Also here is a video how advanced the MH-139A Grey Wolf in-flight experience is in this fly-along video: Bottom line The MH-139A Grey Wolf is the US Air Force’s new utility helicopter of choice. Quieter, stronger and longer ranged with the latest avionics and missile defense equipment.
But in an attempt to save $1.1 billion overall; the per unit cost is such that Congress and the US Department of Defense will have to review the future of a program that Boeing, Leonardo and the other MH-139A industry partners can consider a success..
