“The Block 2.2 we’re doing now; really the seat is the focus of that. The safety in the seat … if you’ve been writing in the press the last few years, you know, those seats, it’s a commercial aircraft that was designed in the 50s, and the seat hasn’t been changed. There are some guys that have been hurt: it really attenuates the stress of the crash really up to your whole back. There wasn’t a lot stopping that. So this new seat has mitigated that for us, largely. That’s being fielded now.”

Block 3.0 promises to add significantly to the performance of the aircraft. One of the major upgrades will be new high-performance rotor blades developed by Boeing.

“The master arm [switch] for the AH guys was right under the collective. I mean, literally, right under the collective,” Vannoy said. “I don’t know how they were able to make all that happen when they had to quickly.”

“These blades are … part of the Block 3 program,” Vannoy said. “What … [Boeing has] done, is they’ve leveraged the Apache, the Guardian program. Apache had a new blade they put together. Boeing scaled that down and applied that to the Little Bird. What it’s done is that, in that test, the aircraft was at 4500 pounds. … Data was extrapolated out to 4K/95 for the airplane. The plane today, as it sits on the flight line at the regiment, would be restricted to about 55 knots straight and level [with that load]. That plane [with the new rotor blades] achieved 105 knots same load, so for us, the guys who are flying that, that’s a significant improvement. I know the operator will appreciate getting there faster.

“Another thing we’re doing in Block 3 is reversing the direction of the tail rotor to clean up the vortex ring state created by the main rotor,” Vannoy said. “It provides better tail rotor performance in the end … and just gives a much more stable platform to the pilot.”

In addition to the aerodynamic improvements, the cockpit improvements will include simplifying the “switchology.”

“The master arm [switch] for the AH guys was right under the collective. I mean, literally, right under the collective,” Vannoy said. “I don’t know how they were able to make all that happen when they had to quickly.” The master arm switch is now being moved up onto the instrument console. “That’s part of the 2.2 and all those things that are smart we’re doing on 2.2, they’ll be carried over for Block 3.0 and in fact evolved a little further,” he said.

“We’re really looking good for the H-6 program, in the evolution of the plane, cleaning it up. We’ll reinforce the airframe, we’ll include a VIP package on the Rolls-Royce engine and get some more power out of it. Right now they’re doing FADEC improvements, single-channel improvements on that for some safety as well, so overall it’s getting a tune-up, but it’s not a new plane yet.”

And that is where Congress comes in. Assuming the existing NDAA is passed and becomes law, the Secretary of Defense will have 90 days from its passage to deliver a report to Congress outlining the future of the Little Bird, and as detailed above, that will have to include looking at a replacement.

“I would tell you it’s our intent to lay out a strategy,” Vannoy said. “We expect to be asked by Congress to lay out a strategy for the future of Little Bird – we’ll be asked that this fall I expect, through the NDAA, and what we’ll do there is we’ll address the near-term, the 2020 to 2030 time frame, but we will address further out, and where we will be going after Little Bird, whether it’s a Block 4 that looks the same or whatever it may be.”