헬리콥터 미공군, HH-60G 페이브호크 퇴역

[위종민]

When Computers Went To Sea | HH-60W 졸리그린II, IOC 획득 - Daum 카페

HH-60W 졸리그린II, IOC 획득

HH-60W 졸리그린II 구조헬기가 보급됨에 따라 HH-60G 페이브호크가 2024년 12월 18일 이탈리아 아비아노 공군기지에서 마지막 비행을 마쳤다고 하네요. 

US Air Force winds down HH-60G Pave Hawk operations | News | Flight Global

US Air Force winds down HH-60G Pave Hawk operations

By 

Ryan Finnerty9 January 2025

Source: Aviano Air Base/US Air Force

The service logged its final active service flight with the venerable Sikorsky combat search and rescue helicopter, as deliveries of the new HH-60W Jolly Green II Combat Rescue Helicopter ramp up.

The US Air Force (USAF) has logged its final active service flight with the venerable Sikorsky HH-60G Pave Hawk combat search and rescue (CSAR) helicopter.

The service’s 56th Rescue Squadron completed the sortie on 18 December 2024 at Aviano air base in Italy, according to the USAF’s European headquarters.

Video footage released by the air force shows a three-ship flight of Pave Hawks, filmed by a fourth aircraft, in close formation over the jagged summits of the Italian Dolomites. The rotorcraft later set down in a snow-covered alpine meadow with rotors turning, while crew members posed for photos.

“Today marks the end of an iconic chapter in our air force history, with the final active-duty HH-60G flight,” said Colonel Beau Diers, deputy commander of the Aviano-based 31st Fighter Wing, which operates two squadrons of Lockheed Martin F-16s.

The Pave Hawk rescue squadron had provided CSAR capability to the fighter wing, with its primary mission being the recovery of downed pilots. Throughout Washington’s long years of counter-insurgency warfare in Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia, air force rescue squadrons also provided casualty evacuation support to ground combat troops.

The type also saw use in disaster relief and humanitarian assistance missions.

“The HH-60G provided countless lifesaving rescue operations around the globe,” Diers notes. “As we transition to the HH-60W, we remember the G’s proud history while looking forward to an even brighter future with increased combat capabilities.”

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The air force has contracted with Sikorsky to deliver HH-60W Jolly Green II Combat Rescue Helicopters as a successor to the ageing Pave Hawk, which first entered service in 1982 as the MH-60G special operations rescue platform.

Among the improvements on the new Jolly Green II design are a larger cabin, increased range, improved avionics package, additional armour protection and modernised threat detection and countermeasure systems for enhanced survivability.

An enlarged 2,438 litre (644USgal) main fuel tank (versus the Pave Hawk’s 1,363 litre tank) provides the HH-60W an unrefuelled combat radius of 195nm (361km).

Current plans listed in 2025 air force budget documents call for the service to acquire 75 Jolly Green IIs, marking a substantial reduction from the original Combat Rescue Helicopter programme covering 113 examples.

Aviano air base received its first batch of the new HH-60Ws on 13 December, with a final tranche set to be fielded in October this year. 

Although it appears similar in appearance to the company’s iconic UH-60 Black Hawk, Sikorsky describes the HH-60W as the Pentagon’s first purpose-built CSAR helicopter. Earlier offerings like the Pave Hawk and the Vietnam-era Sikorsky HH-3E (the original Jolly Green Giant rescue helicopter) were modified versions of existing models.

Sikorsky began delivering HH-60Ws in 2020, with at least 32 aircraft now in service. The air force declared initial operational capability on the Jolly Green II fleet in 2022, with the type completing its first combat mission later that year in the Horn of Africa.

In January 2024, the air force posted footage of two Pave Hawks being loaded into a Lockheed Martin C-5M Super Galaxy strategic lifter for transport to the famous “Boneyard” at Davis-Monthan AFB in Arizona for retirement and storage.

See video from the US Air Force’s final active duty flight of the Sikorsky HH-60G Pave Hawk:

[백선호]

SAM이 엄청 깔린 곳에서는 어느 헬리콥터를 써도 Combat Search And Rescue는 힘들 것 같습니다.

[김용우]

그런데 들어가려면 샌디 대신 위즐을 데리고 들어가야하지 않을까나...

[백선호]

위즐도 갑툭튀하는 MANPADS는 어떻게 할 수가 없으니 CSAR 헬리콥터는 모든 적외선 유도 미사일을 막는 대응수단이 꼭 있어야겠네요.

[위종민]

태평양전쟁 당시엔 격추당한 미군 파일럿들이 바다 위에 떠 있다가 실종되거나 포로로 잡히는 경우도 많았고, 베트남전쟁도 격추당한 파일럿들이 하노이 힐튼에 많이 갖혀 있었죠.

헬기 대신 좀 더 단단하고 느린 기체 + 바다에 내릴 수 있는 비행정같은 걸 이미 요구하고 있는데, 생각보다 빨리 실용화될 수도 있겠다 싶습니다.

[Minowski(김유철)]

몇년전 아프간에서 활동한 PEDROS라는 콜싸인의 CSAR팀 동영상 댓글에 인상적이었던것이, IDE 공격당했는데 RAF는 치누크가 위험에 빠진다고 거절한 것을 PEDROS가 구해줬다고 감사를 표한 내용입니다.
RAF를 먼저부른 것, 그리고 치누크를 언급한 것 보면 영국군이나 호주군이 MERT를 호출한 싱황인것 같은데 결국 PJ가 들어간건 크기 등 기체 능력도 좌우했을 것 같습니다.
근데 이제는 이런 전문기종의 능력의 차이도 무색하게하는 적대적인 방공능력의 향상을 어떻게 극복할수 있을런지..ㅈ

[위종민]

거기다 태평양이 전장인 경우엔 멀리 갔다가 멀리 와야 하는데, 헬기는 고정익기 대비 항속거리도 짧으니.. 물론 CSAR 헬기는 공중급유가 가능하긴 합니다만.

https://www.airandspaceforces.com/air-force-open-ocean-rescue/ , https://www.airandspaceforces.com/air-force-ocean-rescue-wing/

작년 10월 9일 1천 마일 가량 떨어진 화물선의 응급 환자를 HH-60G 2대와 HC-130J 공중급유 2대를 동원해 구조하는 내용을 다룬 기사가 공군 및 우주군 매거진에 실렸었는데, 원거리 SAR 임무의 고난도가 실감이 되더라구요.