Royal Thai Army AH-6i flies
October 7, 2024
On 4 October 2024 Boeing announced that the first Thai AH-6i (22001), had made a successful maiden flight at the company’s facilities at Mesa Arizona, on Thursday 22 August. Jane’s had earlier reported that on 20 June Terry Jamison, director Vertical Lift international sales at Boeing had said that all eight aircraft had either been built or were in various stages of production, and that flight trials of the completed airframes were then underway.
The Royal Thai Army’s US $103.8 million FMS order for eight AH-6i Little Birds, was approved by the US State Department on 24 September 2019. The sale also includes training at Mesa and the US Army Yuma Proving Ground, spare parts, training devices and support equipment, as well as technical publications for the Royal Thai Army. Thailand is the second international customer for the AH-6i, after Saudi Arabia.
Jessie Farrington, business development director of Attack Helicopter Programmes said that: “From its unmatched power-to-weight ratio to its extensive, integrated digital communications suite, the AH-6 offers superior performance, capability and versatility and will be a force-multiplier for the Royal Thai Army.”
The new helicopters will replace seven ageing Bell AH-1F Cobras now operated by 3AvBat, based at Lop Buri/Sa Pran Nak in Thailand’s central Lopburi Province. The Cobras have been operational since1990, and delivery of the eight new helicopters is expected at the end of May 2025.
“The Thailand birds are going down the production line right now. We have already flown some, which are in [the] test flight process currently,” Jamison was reported as having told JDW’s Gareth Jennings.
Christina Upah, VP of attack helicopter programmes and senior Boeing Mesa site executive said that: “With its superior performance and flexible, easily configurable mission equipment, the Little Bird packs enormous versatility into a small, combat-proven package to get the job done. We are proud to partner with the US Army to provide Thailand with these critical defence capabilities, and we look forward to supporting training for the first Thai Little Bird pilots in the near future.”
After Boeing’s merger with McDonnell Douglas, Boeing sold the McDonnell Douglas civil helicopter production lines to MD Helicopters (MDHI) in January 1999. The company’s MD500/520/530 were themselves derivatives of the Hughes Model 369, known as the OH-6 Cayuse in military service.
Boeing retained the rights to produce the military AH-6M Mission Enhanced Little Bird (MELB) derivative of the MD500/520/530. The Mission Enhanced Little Bird had been created in the 1990s as a vehicle for US Army Special Forces, and was operated by the US Army’s 160th SOAR. It combined components from the more powerful MD600N and the MD500 series airframe.
In 2005 MDHI sold Boeing the underlying intellectual property needed to build the Mission Enhanced Little Bird – and the right to make and sell any aircraft derived from it.
MDHI also continued to sell armed helicopters to military customers around the world, and its MD540F was a contender for the Army’s Armed Aerial Scout (AAS) competition, alongside Boeing’s AH-6i! Boeing claimed that the MD 540F violated the 2005 agreement because it was derived from the MELB. After arbitration, it was agreed that the MD 540F was not derived from the MELB, and this ensured that henceforth, MDHI could compete for future US and foreign military contracts by offering its own military derivatives.
Most recently these have included the MD Helicopters Cayuse Warrior and Cayuse Warrior Plus.
At one time, MDHI supplied airframes for AH-6 production, but for the Royal Thai Army AH-6i helicopters, fuselages were produced by Korean Aerospace, as sub-contractor, before Boeing Defense fitted out the airframes with mission equipment. Korean Aerospace had a long history of producing MD500 fuselages having previously produced the fuselages of MD500MDs for the ROK Army. The first fuselage was delivered in July 2023.
The Little Bird shares at least 60% of the avionics from the AH-64D Block III variant, and uses the same mission computer. This is capable of processing large amounts of data and sharing system information quickly — enhancing situational awareness, safety and supportability. The Little Bird is designed to perform a wide range of missions including light attack, precision attack, anti-armour, security and escort, reconnaissance, combat search and rescue and troop insertion and extraction.
Boeing’s Terry Jamison said: “That is a very capable aircraft for Thailand – this is truly a purpose-built military light attack reconnaissance aircraft, unlike some of our competitors, which have taken a commercial variant and have beefed it up, reinforced it, and modified it to meet some of the military requirements. The AH-6 is purpose-built, and it is the only one that has Hellfire integrated as capability. So not only is it a light attack reconnaissance [aircraft], but it’s also an anti-armour-capable aircraft. And we have taken a lot of the technologies from the Apache, particularly in the software and the cockpit interface and drivetrain and migrated those into the AH-6.”
