The U.S. Air Force is moving ahead with plans for a Personnel Recovery Vehicle (PRV) that would replace the HH-60G Pave Hawk for combat search and rescue (CSAR) missions and possibly become the Air Force's common helicopter platform, according to Brig. Gen. John Folkerts, vice commander of Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC).

A vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft, the PRV would replace the 105 Pave Hawks in the Air Force's active, guard, and reserve inventory, according to Folkerts. It also would replace Air Force UH-1Ns that provide support at missile sites and perform VIP support missions out of Andrews Air Force Base, Md., according to Folkerts. The total PRV procurement would be less than 200 aircraft, he said.

"The basic PRV would then be modified to fit each mission area," Folkerts said Nov. 18 at the Institute for Defense and Government Advancement's (IDGA) Helicon conference in Arlington, Va. "It's pretty seductive to have a basic, common Air Force helicopter platform, which is something that we have never had ... at least in our near-term history."

The Air Force hopes to set up a program office for the PRV by the end of the year, Folkerts said. That date "may slip a year, but we've got it targeted for this year, because even with modernization our Pave Hawks still have a space limitation in the number of personnel they can recover," he said. "That's a small cabin back there when we put all of the different kinds of equipment that we have in our Air Force rescue community in the back of that cab."

The Air Force has written the operational requirements document (ORD) for the PRV, which will be reviewed by the Joint Requirements Oversight Council (JROC) within the next few weeks. The ORD requires that the PRV be capable of recovering isolated personnel worldwide, day or night, in all weather. The current ORD is somewhat more generic than previous versions, Folkerts said.

"There was some language in there that was rather limiting in terms of key performance parameters, and we changed it from some engineering data dealing with disc loading and those kinds of things to a more generic statement in terms of capability," he said. The PRV may end up being a family of vehicles tailored for different missions, he said.

AFSOC's CSAR missions typically involve two rescuers, a gunner and a crew chief. The PRV probably will have to have enough cabin room to accommodate at least three or four rescued crewmembers, Folkerts said.

Although currently an Air Force effort, the PRV could become a joint program with the Navy, Folkerts said, with a possible follow-on platform developed for the Marine Corps.

Pave Hawk SLEP

The schedule of the PRV will impact the upcoming service life extension program (SLEP) for the Pave Hawk, which will modify 29 of the oldest HH-60Gs to extend their lives from 7,000 hours to 10,000 hours.

"We're clearly focused on trying to get [the PRV] into the '06 POM [program objective memorandum]," Folkerts said. "There's a chance it could happen earlier. We don't want to spend too much money on an H-60 SLEP, because that's money we can't spend on a PRV. So the optimum schedule SLEPs only the requisite number of H-60s that we have to ... and then leads us into a PRV."

The HH-60G SLEP will improve the aircraft's external gun mounts, enhance the crashworthiness of the cab and crew area and add nonlethal or lethal weapons capable of neutralizing a group of enemies on the ground, according to Folkerts.