Draft EA for TH-XX released

With Naval Air Station Whiting Field in Milton, Fla., scheduled to receive new training helicopters to replace the TH-57 Sea Ranger, the Navy has released a Draft Environmental Assessment (EA) detailing the impact. The Advanced Helicopter Training System, called TH-XX while the Navy considers bidders for the contract, will provide 130 newer, more capable helicopter and training system to Training Air Wing 5 and would meet the advanced helicopter and intermediate tilt-rotor training requirements through 2050. The replacement helicopter, which will require an additional 33 training personnel, has not yet been determined, but will be a commercially available helicopter. For the purposes of the Draft EA, a conservative representative surrogate helicopter, the UH-72 Lakota, larger and louder than comparable commercially available helicopters, was used to analyze the potential impacts from the TH-XX. Training will transition to the TH-XX beginning in 2021 and completed by 2025. Training operations would generally be similar to existing training, but with an increase in the number of annual flight operations, including training involving night vision devices, flying in formation at night, and search an rescue. Prior to the arrival of the TH-XX, new facilities and associated infrastructure would be constructed at NAS Whiting Field to accommodate helicopter maintenance activities and ground based training requirements. Two temporary facilities will be built but later will be replaced by two permanent structures. Public comments on the Draft EA, also available at area libraries, must be postmarked or received online no later than July 19, 2019. For background on TH-XX competition, see the April 2019 Gulf Coast Aerospace Corridor Newsletter, page 6. (Source: GCAC, 06/27/19)