With its modern glass cockpit, twin-engine safety and performance, and reduced noise and vibration, the Eurocopter UH-72A Lakota provides a chance for U.S. Army National Guard units to at last catch up with the advances made in light utility helicopters.

The UH-72A is a commercial off-the-shelf replacement for the venerable UH-1 Huey, performing missions for which the UH-60 Black Hawk is too big or too expensive. Primary missions for the militarized Eurocopter EC145 include medevac, disaster relief, passenger transport and law-enforcement support. More than 200 of the 345 UH-72As to be acquired by the Army will be fielded with Guard units, about 25% of them configured for medevac.

The District of Columbia National Guard’s 121st Medical Company (Air Ambulance) is the first Guard unit to receive aircraft in medevac configuration: six UH-72As replacing nine UH-1H/Vs. Two additional aircraft will be delivered in 2012 to the 1-224th Aviation Battalion (Security and Support), replacing two OH-58s. The aircraft are based at Ft. Belvoir, Va., and will be joined by eight UH-72As of the active Army’s 12th Aviation Battalion in support of the Washington military district.

Training is provided by Eurocopter at its Grand Prairie, Tex., facility, where this Aviation Week pilot, a former Army aviator experienced in the UH-1, had the opportunity to see how the UH-72A compares, flying a company-owned Lakota used as a transition trainer.

A contract for the initial lot of UH-72As was signed in June 2006, with the first aircraft delivered in December of that year. Eurocopter has delivered 85 UH-72As to Army and Guard units, and the first of five for the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School. The 100th aircraft is on the line at American Eurocopter’s Columbus, Miss., facility, where production has reached 55 a year,

All UH-72As are FAA-certified and are military/civil hybrids. Sgt. George Wagner, a crew chief with the 121st, says maintenance personnel training for the UH-72A will graduate with an FAA airframe and powerplant license as well as a military certification. Specialist Lauren Bloch, a flight medic with the 121st, says medical personnel finish training with a basic emergency medical technician certification and are encouraged to become qualified as civilian paramedics.

While the UH-1 carried more payload than the UH‑72A (roughly 4,500 lb. compared with 3,777 lb.), the Lakota’s greater speed and range make up for the difference. Particularly significant for training is its 3.5-hr. endurance, says Maj. Mark Escherich, commanding officer of the 121st.

Frank Kanauka, Eurocopter’s senior pilot for the UH-72A program, pointed out the few exterior differences from the civil EC145 during our walk-around. Most obvious are the nose-mounted wire cutters and extensions on the landing skid: If the helicopter hits a wire below the nose but above the skids, the extensions would direct it below the skids.

The EC145 has optional twin windows in the rear clamshell doors. The UH-72A does not, but in my opinion they would allow more light into the stretcher area for the medic and provide better rearward visibility to the crew chief for confined-area landings.

The main differences are inside the aircraft, the biggest being the number of radios. During disaster-relief operations following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the Army found its helicopters were unable to communicate with many civilian agencies. As a result, Eurocopter has installed eight VHF, UHF and FM radios in the 400-800-MHz. range for civil support operations, plus one for secure military transmissions. The avionics suite includes Chelton, Garmin and Wulfsberg radios. For operation in civil airspace, redundant Garmin 430s provide communication and GPS navigation.