HUNTSVILLE, Ala. - The U.S. Army has awarded Collins Aerospace, an RTX business, a contract worth up to $472 million for engineering services supporting modernization and sustainment of the CH-47 Chinook fleet.
The engineering services will support avionics upgrades intended to integrate new capabilities, address obsolescence, and strengthen the aircraft's avionics architecture, Collins said. The effort will also advance open, reusable avionics architectures intended to increase commonality across the Army's aviation enterprise.
The contract comes as the Army continues modernizing its CH-47F fleet while transitioning to the Block II configuration. The Army delivered the final CH-47F Block I aircraft in April and is shifting production toward Block II while continuing to modernize aircraft already in the inventory.
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The Army's fiscal 2027 budget identifies avionics modernization and obsolescence as continuing requirements for the CH-47F. The service says its Block II program updates the Common Avionics Architecture System (CAAS) and Digital Advanced Flight Control System (DAFCS) software packages and incorporates avionics changes introduced in the final CH-47F production aircraft. The program also includes provisions for future upgrades.
Open systems
Separately, the Army's CH-47 modification program calls for critical avionics and software updates to address obsolescence and technology insertion, including improvements involving communications security, cybersecurity, and assured positioning, navigation, and timing. The program also calls for integration opportunities through CAAS and DAFCS Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA) interfaces.
The Block II CAAS uses a MOSA, according to the Army, allowing the architecture to accommodate technology changes. The Army says the approach also supports integration of degraded-visual-environment sensors and future semi-autonomous flight capabilities.
Collins supplies the CH-47F's CAAS avionics management system, which integrates communications, navigation and mission subsystems through the company's Flight2 open-systems architecture. Collins says its CH-47 CAAS uses open standards and is designed to support system upgrades and enhancements.
The Army's broader modernization approach reflects the challenge of maintaining avionics on a long-serving aircraft while incorporating new capabilities. Its FY2027 CH-47 modification funding specifically addresses hardware obsolescence and technology refresh, with the service citing components such as data concentrator units and cockpit voice and data recorders as systems requiring obsolescence solutions.
The new Collins engineering-services contract therefore supports an avionics modernization effort that combines technology insertion with lifecycle sustainment. Collins said the open and reusable architecture approach is intended to reduce integration complexity and improve cost and schedule efficiency as the Army modernizes its aviation fleet.
Work under the contract will be performed in Huntsville, Ala., and Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
