The RAH-66 Comanche: an unfinished legend. Classified as a stealth reconnaissance and attack helicopter, the RAH-66 was a product of Boeing and Sikorsky and destined to change U.S. Army air capability in the 1990s.
However, though full of promise and advanced features, it ended in cancellation, leaving behind a legacy of missed opportunities and lessons learned.
The RAH-66 Comanche was intended to replace the aging Kiowa OH-58D and AH-1 Cobra helicopters.
At one point, the Army intended to buy 1,213 Comanches; the number has since been shrunk to 650; no one is probably going to be kept operational.
The design formed a high-speed, agile, highly survivable helicopter with an operating speed of about 200 miles per hour and an operating ceiling of 18,000 feet.
Its advanced features in stealth, with a low radar cross-section and lowering of the infrared signature, made it a potent platform for reconnaissance and light attacks.
Despite the gorgeous design, it faced several issues in its development process. The planned budget for each Comanche helicopter was $30 million.
However, the real program budget reached over $30 billion. Coupled with technical problems, military priorities worsened the condition of the project.
In the end, in 2004, the Pentagon canceled the program opted to improve the existing helicopters, and continued to work on UAV development.
The cancellation of the Comanche program is extremely controversial. Advocates argued that the advanced capabilities provided by this helicopter would have bestowed much-needed real superiority upon the Army in future wars.
They likened the Comanche to the F-22 Raptor, another advanced aircraft that set itself into difficult issues but ultimately proved priceless. However, it was criticized that the more economically effective and flexible approach toward bringing it into existence for the Army would have been investing in UAVs and upgrading helicopters.
It was criticized while pointing out the overrun costs and technical issues. The heritage of the Comanche lives on in the advancements it helped pioneer.
Stealth features, advanced avionics, and sophisticated sensor systems already have been transposed into other combat helicopters, including the Apache Block III and the AH-64E Guardian.
What was learned from the Comanche program shapes the Army’s current efforts to develop next-generation rotary-wing aircraft through the Future Vertical Lift (FVL) program.
The RAH-66 Comanche is a hard lesson in the complexities and challenges of advanced military development. Although this helicopter never completed an operational life cycle, its influence is still being felt in its evolution, which continues to this day in military aviation.