On August 5, 2024, Boeing Corporation announced that it had delivered the first mass-produced MH-139A Grey Wolf multirole helicopter to the US Air Force. This is the first helicopter from the first serial (small-scale) batch of Low Rate Initial Production (LRIP) in 2023, which includes 13 helicopters. It made its first flight in December 2023 and will now be transferred to the 582nd Helicopter Group of the 20th Air Force of the Strategic Aviation Command of the United States Air Force (Air Force Global Strike Command) at Malmstrom Air Base in Montana.
The first production Boeing / Leonardo Helicopters MH-139A Grey Wolf combat multirole helicopter received by the US Air Force, 08/05/2024 (c) Boeing
The MH-139A Grey Wolf helicopter is a variant of the well-known AW139 commercial helicopter manufactured by the Italian company Leonardo. In September 2018, the US Air Force selected on a competitive basis the AW139 multipurpose helicopter proposed by Boeing under the designation MN-139 to replace the Bell UH-1N Huey helicopter fleet used to ensure the safety of American ground-based strategic missile systems. Currently, the US Air Force uses about 60 UH-1N helicopters (a military version of the Bell 212 helicopter), which began entering service in 1970 and are now 50 years old, to ensure the safety of mine-based strategic missile systems. In addition to this main task, UH-1N helicopters of the Air Force are also used for daily VIP transportation and have the task of ensuring the evacuation of members of the US Congress and important government employees from Washington in case of an emergency.
In total, the US Air Force initially planned to purchase 84 Boeing MH-139A helicopters with the start of deliveries in fiscal year 2021, the cost of the procurement program, together with technical support and training of personnel, was estimated at $ 2.4 billion. The requirements of the US Air Force include ensuring that each helicopter flies for at least 480 hours per year with a service life of at least 30 years. Accordingly, the main part of the MN-139A helicopters should be deployed as part of the 37th, 40th and 54th helicopter squadrons of the 582nd Helicopter Group of the 20th Air Army at air bases (actually missile bases), respectively, Warren (Montana), Maelstrom (Montana) and Minot (North Dakota), and as part of the 582nd group of the 550th Helicopter Squadron formed in 2023 in Maelstrom, which will retrain personnel for this type. According to the plans, MN-139A helicopters were also to be deployed at the Andrews Metropolitan Air Force Base (Maryland), as part of a detachment in Yokosuka (Japan), and for flight training at Fairchild Air Bases (Washington State) and Kirtland (New Mexico).
However, due to the delay in the program and financial problems, by now the plans for the purchase of the MN-139A have been reduced to only six experimental and 36 production units only for the rearmament of the 582nd Helicopter Group, which directly ensures the safety of missile units of the US Air Force. It was decided to temporarily keep the old UH-1N helicopters for operation in Washington (Andrews), Yokosuka and Fairchild and Kirtland air bases.
The first MH-139A helicopter was transferred to the 413th Test Squadron of the US Air Force at Duke Field Air Base (Florida) in December 2019 for military testing, then in 2020 this squadron received four more experimental helicopters, and then two more test vehicles were delivered to the US Air Force. In March 2024, one of these vehicles was transferred to the 550th Squadron at Maelstrom Air Base for retraining of personnel. In 2023, after protracted testing, Boeing received a US Air Force contract worth $ 285 million for the first 13 production MN-139A helicopters of the pre-production LRIP batch, the first of which has now been delivered. In June 2024, the US Air Force awarded a contract for seven more MN-139A helicopters.
The helicopters are supplied from the Leonardo Helicopters manufacturing facility (formerly AgustaWestland) in Philadelphia, where the American AW139 helicopter assembly line is located. The AW139 helicopters manufactured there are then converted to the MN-139A variant at Boeing's Ridley Park facility, on the southern outskirts of Philadelphia (the former parent company of Boeing Vertol).
