Combat Rescue Tanker
THE CRT WILL PROVIDE LONGER LEGS FOR CSAR PLATFORMS ON THEIR CRITICAL MISSIONS.
Combat search and rescue has been a mission in evolution the past few years. Perhaps starting with the migration of the CSAR mission to Air Force Special Operations Command, the mission platforms have been called into question. This drove the original Personnel Recovery Vehicle (PRV) program, now called CSARX, which is currently looking at viable options for acquiring a medium-lift platform capable of performing all current and near-term anticipated combat search and rescue missions.
In early January, AFSOC and the Air Force Aeronautical Systems Center issued a market research document opening a project that seeks options for a combat rescue tanker to support current CSAR missions and those of any future platforms. According to AFSOC, “AFSOC and the Combat Rescue Tanker (CRT) Integrated Product Team (IPT) are conducting advanced market research looking for a new or modified tanker aircraft to replace or augment the current fleet of fixed wing tankers that are used in the combat search and rescue mission. Candidate platform(s) will provide personnel recovery/recovery operations (PR/RO) forces with the capability to conduct in-flight and ground refueling of current vertical lift assets, and should have the capability to adapt to the next generation (CSAR-X) rescue platform. It will also have the capability to provide overt/covert airland or airdrop delivery of pararescuemen and their equipment. In addition, the platform must have the capability to perform the airborne mission commander mission.”
When asked what factors are helping to drive this project, Major Rique Gwin, AFSOC CRT program manager said, “The extreme age of the current fleet, inadequate size of the current fleet and lack of standardization among the fleet drive a need for recapitalization. The mandatory center wing box replacement program is an example of the age-related issues that plague this fleet.” The fleet he is referring to is the AFSOC HC-130 series of aircraft.
As the combat rescue tanker mission capabilities will be driven primarily by the current HH-60 helicopter fleet and the CSAR-X candidate platform when selected, the CRT airframe will not necessarily have to be a similar size aircraft to the C-130 although it certainly can be.
The platform will have to be capable of operating in 10 percent worldwide climatic extremes as defined in MILHDBK- 310—values that are expected to occur at least once, for a short duration (less than three hours), during approximately 10, 30 and 60 years of exposure—in all environmental regions of the globe (e.g., arctic, desert, mountainous, littoral, tropical, etc.), day or night, during adverse weather conditions, and in a variety of spectrums of warfare to include passing through nuclear, biological and chemical environments.
It is anticipated that deployment of the CRT to support CSAR mission will include operating from main operating bases, forward operating bases and forward operating locations. In general, this would require the airframe to be capable of deploying without immediate strategic airlift support and maintain sustained operations with a minimum of support.
While being a tanker, it too must be capable of receiving in-flight refueling from current strategic tanker assets as well. The airframe will have to be capable of refueling rotary wing and tiltrotor (V- 22) aircraft at airspeeds between 105 and higher, and incorporate a refueling drogue that functions throughout that airspeed range without reconfiguration.
Regarding communications and information technology requirements, it is generally known that the CRT candidate airframe must comply with Software Compliant Architecture and Joint Tactical Radio Systems mandates, and also comply with net-centric, airborne network ing and IP networking architecture.
According to Gwin the preferred initial operating capability is 2011. The analysis of alternatives is currently ongoing so there has yet to be a determination of the number of airframes desired and required. ♦