MH-139 Grey Wolf: The Newest Helicopter Chosen By USAF to Replace UH-1N Huey

MH-139 Grey Wolf: The Newest Helicopter Chosen By USAF to Replace UH-1N Huey

The helicopter will help safeguard America’s nuclear weapons. The U.S. Air Force’s Global Strike Command took possession of its first new security forces helicopter yesterday, during a ceremony that also saw the new rotorcraft named “Grey Wolf.” Grey Wolf will carry quick reaction forces consisting of Air Force security personnel, ready to rapidly respond to an incident or attack at one of hundreds of intercontinental ballistic missile silos spread across the American West.

Grey Wolf is actually a rebadged AugustaWestland AW139 helicopter. Although Boeing makes helicopters such as the AH-64 Apache attack helicopter and the CH-47 Chinook heavy transport, it really didn’t make a medium-weight, Blackhawk-sized helicopter that the Air Force had in mind for the role. For that, Boeing turned to AugustaWestland, which has already built 900 AW139s for customers worldwide.

According to Boeing, Grey Wolf is fifty percent faster than the UH-1N “Huey” helicopters currently serving Air Force security forces. It can also fly 50 percent farther and carry 5,000 more pounds of cargo. Boeing says that Grey Wolf will save up to one billion dollars in life cycle costs. The Air Force plans to buy 84 Grey Wolves for $2.4 billion.

Grey Wolf is a multi-mission helicopter embracing a number of roles, hence the “M” in MH-139. A worst case scenario might see Grey Wolves rolling up on terrorists trying to force their way into a Minuteman III missile silo, while a best case scenario might be transporting Air Force VIPs. Grey Wolf can carry up to 15 people and has slide-down doors to facilitate the use of window-mounted M240 medium machine guns. It also has a reduced infrared signature to foil sensors and infrared-guided missiles.

According to a Global Strike Command tweet, Grey Wolf was apparently named after the grey wolves whose territory includes the missiles fields the new helicopter is meant to protect.

Source: https://bit.ly/2rEikqe