The internal weapon bay can be fitted with Stinger, Starstreak or Mistral air-to-air missiles TOW II, Hot II or Longbow Hellfire air-to-ground missiles Sura D 81mm, Snora 81mm, Hydra 70 rockets or the army counter air weapon system. The missiles are mounted on the weapon bay doors, which open sideways. The Comanche carries its weapons internally and has a weapons bay on each side of the fuselage. The CNI suite will feature secure multi-wave, multiband multimode wireless communications, Link 16, satellite communications and Enhanced Position Locating Reporting System (EPLRS) via the tactical internet. Northrop Grumman is providing the Comanche’s integrated Communications, Navigation and Identification (CNI) suite. flat screen liquid crystal displays, a colour display for a digital moving map system, tactical situation and night operation display. The targets are designated and the weapons fired from collective and sidestick control push buttons. HIDSS employs active matrix liquid crystal display (AMLCD) technology. The cockpit is fitted with a pilot’s night vision system from Lockheed Martin and the pilots have a wide field of view (35º x 52º) Kaiser Electronics Helmet Integrated Display Sighting System (HIDSS). The fly-by-wire flight control system is triple redundant. The Comanche has two identical cockpits for the pilot and the co-pilot, which are sealed and have a positive pressure air system for protection against chemical and biological warfare. The rear rotor is able to withstand impact by 12.7mm rounds, and provides a 180 degree turn in 4.7 seconds in hover mode and an 80-knot snap-turn-to-target in 4.5 seconds. The helicopter has a composite five-bladed bearingless main rotor and an enclosed composite fantail tailrotor for increased anti-torque capability. The radar cross section has been minimised, primarily by the precisely shaped fuselage and internal weapons configuration. The airframe is crashworthy and ballistically tolerant to 23mm gunfire. In an armed reconnaissance mission, Comanche can recognise and identify targets, and digitally transmit the information to the battlefield commander in near real-time, select the optimum force deployment and co-ordinate the attack. Boeing is responsible for manufacturing and assembling the composite tail section and rotor blades and Sikorsky for manufacture of the main fuselage and gearbox and for integration and final assembly of the airframe. Production of the Comanche would take place at Sikorsky’s new site in Bridgeport, Connecticut. 800 more aircraft and upgrade another 400 with the diverted Comanche funds. An amendment to Congress will be submitted for the 2005 budget request that would allow the Army to terminate the Comanche program and reallocate funds to restructure Army aviation programs. It considers that the helicopter will not meet the requirements of changing operational environments. In February 2004, the US Army announced that it plans to cancel further research, development and planned purchases of the RAH-66 Comanche stealth helicopter. Critical design review of the overall weapon system was completed in June 2003 to be followed by low rate initial production of 78 helicopters in three batches in 2007. The program entered Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) in June 2000, which requires the construction of nine aircraft in addition to the two prototypes by 2006. The first flight of the Comanche took place on 4 January 1996. The Comanche RAH-66 reconnaissance and attack helicopter was being developed by Boeing and Sikorsky for the US Army.
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