Army Aircraft Icing
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DISCUSSION
The difficulty in definitively answering the question, "Is icing a problem for
Army aviation units?" is captured in the following statement from a respondent
to the aircraft and ground maintenance questionnaire: "When the weather is bad
enough to require deicing, it is usually too bad to fly, so we don't need deicing."
Because the Army limits aircraft flight in icing conditions according to each
aircraft's performance envelope, the consequential restrictions on flying become
the baseline for defining aviation capabilities. The concern is not what capability
is lost because aircraft cannot fly in icing conditions, but instead how to be fully
functional once aircraft finally are airborne. At the commander's level and
below, this reasoning considers icing not as a problem to be solved, but as a
limitation to be dealt with. At the same time, however, the Army is striving
within budget constraints to increase the safe operational envelope for all its
systems to provide a more robust, adverse weather capability to support national
military requirements.
Contributing to the "icing is not a problem" attitude is the conviction that if
Army aviators are not flying, opposing forces are not, either. One challenge,
then, is to be the first back in the air. The side that can deice its aircraft most
rapidly will resume executing its mission sooner. Icing may not be considered a
problem at the commander's level, but the time required to deice an aircraft is.
Similarly, the lack of deicing fluids that are both environmentally safe and non-
damaging to aircraft is a problem because it contributes to the delays associated
with deicing aircraft. For many aviation commanders, deicing is not a limiting
factor in mission accomplishment because their aircraft either are hangared
regularly or are moved into hangars when ground icing is expected. When
hangars are not available, then the speed with which deicing can be accomplished
determines the minimum time before aircraft are again flyable after ground icing
events.
Another challenge is to have more accurate predictions of the occurrence and
extent of in-flight icing conditions. If a flight line is experiencing moderate or
heavy icing, then aircraft are grounded. If the local conditions are favorable (no
or light icing), but more severe in-flight icing conditions are forecast in the mis-
sion area, then aircraft, including UAVs, can launch, but may not necessarily
reach their objective. The problem becomes one of needing to know if there are,
or will be, sectors with allowable weather conditions. The side that can exploit
transient flight corridors where ambient conditions do not exceed the icing rating
of its aircraft has the advantage.
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