A conceptual method for mission based analysis and design of military multi role helicopters

At the end of the cold war conflict, requirements for a modern military helicopter system have changed fundamentally. Recent scenarios are more and more dedicated to local conflicts with a strong demand for parapublic, intervention or humanitarian relief operations. Multi role capability of the helicopter system is vital due to the dynamically changing mission requirements. To keep development effort and costs at a minimum the use of commercially available helicopters is more and more considered (commercial off the shelf - COTS). For this purpose the tool COMMANDO-H (Conceptual Method for Mission based Analysis and Design of Helicopters) was developed together with Eurocopter Germany. It features mission specific configuration of essential avionic and mission equipment, mission specific analysis of helicopter flight mechanics and integrated sensor models for FLIR and NVG systems as well as an integrated mission rating process. Using COMMANDO-H the military multi role capability of two light helicopters was investigated resulting in a conceptual design for each helicopter.