OpenLift™ Rotary Wing Modular, Open Architecture

The Northrop Grumman Corporation-designed modular, open systems digital cockpit for the UH-60V helicopter has been declared suitable, effective and ready for full-rate production by the U.S. Army. The milestone was achieved following the completion of initial operational test and evaluation (IOT&E) activities.

“The UH-60V will provide a range of new capabilities as it affordably extends the service life of these Black Hawk aircraft,” said Brandon White, vice president, navigation, targeting and survivability, Northrop Grumman. “It’s an aircraft and an architecture built for the future of rotary aviation, where the ability to innovate rapidly is paramount.”

The UH-60V is a comprehensive cockpit redesign that replaces the UH-60L’s legacy analog instrumentation with a fully open, digital and integrated avionics suite. The UH-60V has been granted airworthiness release for instrument flight rules and for its multicore processor, a first in an Army Black Hawk.

Proven on the UH-60V and demonstrated on the AH-64E Apache, the Army architecture is applicable to the entire current fleet and is ready for Future Vertical Lift. The architecture is currently exportable for Black Hawk, Apache and Chinook.

One Helo. Many Missions.

Northrop Grumman provides the OpenLift™ Integrated Avionics Suite for the UH-60V. This transformational approach to avionics modernizes the U.S. Army’s UH-60L Black Hawk helicopters with a glass cockpit, including an integrated computational system, visual display system and Control Display Units. This replaces the analog gauges in UH-60L helicopters with an integrated system that provides one of the most advanced avionics systems in the U.S. Army. Our solution extends the life and mission capabilities of the UH-60 platform.

Additional benefits of Northrop Grumman’s open and scalable, fully integrated mission equipment package include enhanced pilot situational awareness and mission safety, decreased workload and life cycle cost, and a common training environment.

Our modular open systems architecture (MOSA), OpenLift™, enhances the way new capabilities are acquired and delivered to the warfighter. With open architecture systems, operators are free to work with multiple developers to upgrade capabilities. By breaking vendor lock, these systems drive competition and enable more frequent upgrades that can greatly extend and expand an aircraft’s mission set.

Our approach for the design and implementation of the UH-60V integrated mission equipment package draws upon our experience with similar upgrades for the U.S. Marine Corps AH-1Z and UH-1Y helicopters, U.S. Navy E-2D Advanced Hawkeye, and the Royal Jordanian Air Force AH-1 program.