Through Pave Hawk Eyes

摘要

The US Air Force's HH-60G Pave Hawk program office at Robins Air Force Base, Georgia, is managing efforts to field a degraded visual environment system (DVES) on the retiring rescue helicopter. The new safety system integrates a new light detection and ranging (lidar) sensor with existing infrared visionics to give crews better situational awareness taking off, hovering and landing in dusty brownout or snow-blind whiteout. It also aims to help pilots avoid wires, towers, trees and terrain en route in clear day or night flight. The program office expects DVES flight tests this spring and plans to outfit 18 Pave Hawks beginning in April 2022. Options to equip another 61 helicopters may stretch installations through April 2023. The Air Force began retiring HH-60GS in March 2021, but Pave Hawks are expected to be in service through 2029, largely in National Guard and Reserve units. The Air Force is taking delivery of 108 new HH-60W Jolly Green Giant IIs with an eye to some future DVE upgrade, but has yet to assess integration on the replacement combat rescue helicopter with fully integrated avionics architecture and digital automatic flight control system.