Two AH-1Z Vipers arrived in the Czech Republic this week, marking the first in-country delivery as part of a partnership with the US Marine Corps H-1 Light/Attack Helicopter program office (PMA-276) and industry partner, Bell.
The successful delivery of the new prototype H-1 Mission Rehearsal Trainer (MRT) in February to Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California, marks a significant milestone in Marine Light Helicopter Attack Squadron (HMLA) training. Once into production, the deliveries will provide the HMLA community fully transportable MRTs with a small footprint, allowing Marines to practice tactical combat skills, mission scenarios, and maintain combat proficiency while deployed.
Deputy Minister Frantisek Sulc and Brig. Gen. Petr Cepelka, Commander of the Czech Air Force, visited the Bell Amarillo Assembly Center H-1 production line in March to catch a glimpse of the Czech Republic Air Force’s future fleet of AH-1Z Viper and UH-1Y Venom helicopters.
“It is great to be here to see the final stage of delivering our aircraft,” said Minister Sulc. “This is a very important step for the modernization of the Czech Army.”
Members of Marine Light Attack Helicopter Training Squadron (HMLAT) 303 and the H-1 Light/Attack helicopters program office (PMA-276), recognized a group of airmen from the Czech Republic Air Force during a ceremony on Feb. 9 for completing maintenance and flight training on the H-1 family of the aircraft.
Following an unprecedented on-time delivery record, the Marines received its final AH-1Z Viper as mapped out by the service’s program of record (POR).
The Marines received its final AH-1Z Viper as mapped out by the service’s program of record (POR), culminating in 189 attack helicopters and 160 UH-1Y Venoms, the service’s utility variant.
The U.S. Marine Corps declared Initial Operating Capability (IOC) for the AGM-179A Joint Air-to-Ground Missile (JAGM) on the AH-1Z Viper, March 1.
JAGM, a joint program with the Army, is a precision-guided missile that combines semi-active laser guidance and millimeter-wave radar. It is an air-to-surface precision-guided munition (PGM) used on joint rotary-wing, unmanned aircraft systems, and fixed-wing platforms to destroy high-value, stationary and moving, land and maritime targets.
The Naval Air Systems Command recognized an impressive production streak this week with the 100th consecutive on-time delivery of the AH-1Z Viper, the Marine’s attack helicopter.
“Of all of the domestic AH-1Zs delivered to date, 91 percent of them have been on-time,” said Col Vasilios Pappas, PMA-276 program manager. “This is a feat only possible through the determination of our production team and the program’s strong relationship with our industry partners and suppliers.”
For the first time in flight, the AH-1Z Viper established a two way connection between a ground station and the aircraft’s Link 16 and Advanced Networking Wideband Waveform (ANW2) systems.
A new capability for the H-1 platform, the digital interoperability (DI) suite includes Link 16 and ANW2 data links, a gateway to share information across various networks. Additionally, the suite includes a new digital moving map, enabling the H-1 platform to display information from these data links on a common display.
The United States Marine Corps (USMC) AH-1Z Viper and UH-1Y Venom surpassed the 400,000 joint flight-hour milestone in April.
The H-1 mixed fleet of attack and utility helicopters have been deployed around the globe since 2010.
