To the Rescue
Written by Peter Buxbaum
Combat Search And Rescue (Csar) Teams Are
The Confidence Factor For Aircrews That Someone
Is On The Way When Things Go South.
Potential contractors on a new Air Force platform for combat search and rescue experienced something of a shock last year when Secretary of Defense Robert Gates canceled the program after a second round of bidding had already been completed. The CSAR-X competition, as it was called, would have provided the Air Force with a new and innovative CSAR platform.
Boeing Company won the first round of bidding to provide a replacement for an aging fleet of HH-60Gs and was prepared to provide the Air Force with a variant of its MH47G when a successful bid protest sent the project back to the drawing boards. A second round of bidding ensued, a process which was aborted before a contracting decision was ever made.
The original decision to acquire a state-of-the-art CSAR air frame was made to provide the Air Force with greater range and power, as well as other benefits, and would have cost the Air Force a pretty penny. Industry sources say that Gates is more interested in looking at a tried and true platform for any future CSAR replacement.
But CSAR professionals like Major Jason Wetzel of the 306th Rescue Squadron, headquartered at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz., will tell you they don’t much care what platform gets them to the rescue site; it’s their training and specialized equipment that count. The unit has been deployed all over the globe, including in southwest Asia, and will soon be departing for an assignment in the Philippines.
“Our basic mission is search and rescue, during the day or night, in any environment, friendly or not friendly, in CONUS or OCONUS,” said Wetzel. “We consider ourselves to be human based and independent of weapons systems or aircraft. We can work on any aircraft, whether U.S. or foreign military. But it doesn’t really matter to us what gets us to the rescue scene—whether it is by bicycle, horse, train, or snowmobile—whatever gets us closer to the person we need to rescue.”
Wetzel, a combat search and rescue officer, heads a team of highly trained pararescuemen, or PJs. Pararescuemen are among the most highly trained emergency trauma specialists in the U.S. military. They must maintain an emergency medical technicianparamedic qualification throughout their careers. With this medical and rescue expertise, along with their deployment capabilities, PJs are able to perform life-saving missions in the world’s most remote areas.
A pararescueman’s primary function is as a personnel recovery specialist, with emergency medical capabilities in humanitarian and combat environments. They deploy in any available manner, to include air-land-sea tactics, into restricted environments to authenticate, extract, treat, stabilize and evacuate injured personnel, while acting in an enemy-evading, recovery role.
Pararescuemen have over one million dollars in specialized equipment at their disposal, although they don’t bring all of their equipment on every mission. “We pick and choose what we want to use depending on the mission,” said Wetzel. “We may be performing an operation over the water, on the side of cliffs, or in the middle of the desert. We may get to the scene using parachutes or motorcycles. We may be carrying extraction equipment and breeching systems. We may have lifting aircraft at our disposal.”
One thing the unit does carry all the time is its medical kit. “All of our pararescuemen are paramedics,” said Wetzel. “They can basically do surgery in field if necessary, and they use satellite communications to communicate with a doctor in the rear.”
Pararescuemen carry surgical kits and first responder kits in their rucksacks. “We each carry 40 to 60 pounds of medical gear so we can handle three critical patients at a time,” said Wetzel. “Every rucksack is configured the same way so every man knows where to find an item in his buddy’s pack.”
Duty in Southwest Asia involved many “Blackhawk Down types of scenarios,” as Wetzel put it, in which the rescue squad had to extricate personnel not only from downed aircraft, but also from a variety of land vehicles, often after an attack by an improvised explosive device. The rescue squad used reciprocating saws, grinders and other equipment to get into the vehicles, said Senior Master Sergeant Chris Tellsworth, a member of Wetzel’s team. “We often parachuted the equipment to the rescue location,” he added. “We can break into any vehicle being used, including MRAPs,” said Wetzel, referring to the heavy mine resistant ambush protected vehicles.
The team also uses a variety of rope and pulley systems to do high angle and low angle rescues in difficult terrain or to pull a vehicle off the person to be rescued.
The team also uses a variety of communications equipment. The basic issue is the PRC-152, a small personal radio “which does satellite communications and the whole shebang,” said Wetzel. The team also carries a variant of the PRC-117 for water environments and still other gear for subsurface rescues and other contingencies.
“Each guy carries a communications package with different devices that hook into the radio platforms to adapt them to the needs of the mission,” said Wetzel. “We’re also always carrying around onmidirectional antennas.”
A radio used by many search and rescue units, the AN/PRC-112 Survival Radio, a workhorse for the last 25 years, has been updated through a contract with EPS Corporation to create an updated model, the AN/PRC-112D.
“The original 112 contained 11 modules,” meaning circuit boards within the radio, said Edmund Tognola, the EPS program manager for the AN/PRC-112D. “Using the latest manufacturing techniques, we were able to reduce the number of modules down to three.”
That accomplishment significantly reduced the power consumption of the radio, which saves on costs and more importantly stretches the radio’s uptime during emergency situations. “We extended the battery life from five hours to 30 to 40 hours on the D model,” said Tognola.
EPS’s team consists of Tadiran-Spectralink, Tobyhanna Army Depot and American Competitiveness Institute (ACI). Together, this team developed the “D” Model Radio and an upgrade kit to retrofit older versions of the radio.
“EPS, as the prime contractor, provides all program management and oversight,” Tognola explained. “Tadiran-Spectralink, an Israeli company, provides the technical expertise and is responsible for the design, engineering, development, manufacturing components and modules, and assembling the circuit cards.”
ACI was responsible for designing a new line of battery cases that eliminated the dependence.
on expensive Mil-Spec batteries for powering the radios. The radio can now be powered with the Army’s BA-5112/U or non-rechargeable Li-91 lithium AA cells or rechargeable nickel metal hydride AA cells. Tobyhanna Army Depot assembles and tests the radio and upgrades older versions.
During the redesign process, the EPS team incorporated other improvements to the radio. These include improved beacon transmission and improved voice transmission and reception.
A more advanced level of CSAR communications comes in the form of Boeing Company’s Combat Survivor Evader Locator (CSEL). In July of last year, Boeing delivered the 25,000th CSEL combat search and rescue communications system to U.S. joint services.
“CSEL minimizes the search aspect of a rescue mission by providing recovery forces with precise geo-positioning information and secure, over-the-horizon, line-of-sight and two-way data communications capabilities,” said John Lunardi, vice president, Boeing Networks and Communication Systems. “These capabilities enable recovery forces to locate, authenticate, and communicate with isolated personnel in near real-time anywhere in the world.” CSEL received authorization for use in theater in December 2005.
The need for an improved combat search and rescue communications capability grew out of deficiencies identified during operations in Southwest Asia and Bosnia, according to Lunardi. “Rescue missions experienced an extremely low recovery rate and were often exposed to very high enemy threats,” he said. “Older survival radios are only effective if friendly forces are within line-of-sight, and offer very little to counter the possibility of enemy intercept or jamming.”
When activated by an isolated person (IP), the CSEL handheld radio automatically transmits his exact GPS location and identification information. “The IP and rescue centers are able to exchange messages on the IP’s physical condition, enemy location, rescue plans and more,” said Lunardi. “With this information, the rescue forces can plan and execute the mission while minimizing the danger to the IP and rescue personnel.”
Despite the canceling of the CSAR-X acquisition, the search for a new or updated Air Force CSAR platform is far from over. “The Air Force has an urgent need to recapitalize its aging HH-60G fleet,” said Lieutenant Colonel Karen Platt, an Air Force spokesperson. The original complement of HH-60Gs has been reduced to around 100, due to combat and training losses.
The Air Force also “has existing requirements that support the legacy HH-60G fleet, to include a number of unfilled urgent operational requirements from the combatant commands,” said Platt. The Air Force has released a request for information on HH-60G recapitalization and support, to which industry players have responded.
Finally, “the Air Force has validated CSAR-X requirement for an aircraft intended to replace the HH-60G to address capability and force sufficiency shortfalls,” said Platt.
Boeing Company proposed a variation of the MH47G during the now-defunct CSAR-X competition, according to Rick Spicer, manager business development at Boeing Military Aircraft. “The G model is in Afghanistan, where it does air assault and resupply for special operations missions,” he said. “We understand that the customer is very happy with it.”
The MH47G is suitable for CSAR because of its range and endurance and its stability in high winds, said Spicer. “The G model has twice fuel capacity than the F model, plus terrain following radar and an air refueling capability,” he said. The variation proposed for CSAR-X included additional ballistic protection, an enlarged front door, blade de-icing, wire cut protection, and “some other cats and dogs. The G model has extraordinary performance compared to the ordinary helicopter. It takes all the power and turns it into lift. Its center of gravity envelope and crosswinds stability make it very versatile for these missions.”
Depending on what the Air Force’s eventual requirements look like, Boeing may propose a variant of the CV-22 as a CSAR replacement aircraft. “We don’t know what the specific requirements are,” said Spicer, “except that there is the perception that the previous CSAR requirements were way overstated.”
Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. offered its HH-92 aircraft, a derivative of its commercial S-92, in the original CSAR-X competition. “We didn’t make that many modifications to the commercial aircraft,” said Michael Farage, Sikorsky’s director of Air Force programs. “We beefed up the engine, put in some things required for the CSAR platform, such as armor, additional avionics, additional aircraft survivability equipment, night vision capabilities and increased range. It was going to have an integrated system that was going to allow the aircraft to fly at low altitudes, at night and in adverse weather conditions.”
The S92 is already running search and rescue missions for the British coast guard, Farage noted.
For the HH-60G recapitalization program, Sikorsky is planning to propose a modification to its UH-60M that will bring it to an HH- 60G type of configuration. The UH-60M is slower than the S-92 and its inside volume is much smaller. It can carry five or six passengers, as compared to the 15 to 20 accommodated by the larger S-92.
“It will still have same survivability capabilities and will be able to fly at low altitudes, in adverse weather and at night,” said Farage. Modifications to the UH-60M will include an air refueling probe, forward looking infrared sensors, additional armor and an external 200 gallon fuel tank for additional range.
“A lot of the inherent capabilities in the UH-60M meet or exceed that of the current HH-60G,” said Farage.
The Air Force expects a final requirement will support recapitalization of the legacy HH-60Gs beginning in FY12, according to Platt. “The fiscal year 2011 president’s budget request contains funding for an HH-60 recapitalization program,” she said. “Funding starts in fiscal year 2011 and procurement is programmed to start in fiscal year 2012.”
But an acquisition strategy to replace the aging HH-60s is still up in the air. “To this end,” said Platt, “the Air Force is currently working to finalize requirements.” ♦