The new MH-139 Grey Wolf helicopter landed at Malmstrom Air Force Base last week and its arrival was celebrated by the Air Force, congressional leaders, the aviation industry and locals during a March 9 ceremony on base.
Airmen are now training on the new helicopter, taking it through initial operational testing and evaluation as 10 more helicopters are set to arrive at Malmstrom over the next year.
Staff Sgt. Jesse Santiago, was with the 40th Helicopter Squadron but is now assigned to the 550th Helicopter Squadron, a unit that stood up in May 2023 at Malmstrom to support the crew transition from the current Huey.
The 40th is continuing to provide security in the missile field with the Hueys during the transition.
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The Grey Wolf is the MH-139A helicopter that will replace the Air Force’s UH-1N Huey fleet, which is used for at the three ICBM bases, as well as civil search and rescue, airlift support, National Capital Region missions and survival school and test support. It’s developed by Boeing and Leonardo.
Santiago is a special mission aviator with the helicopter air crews.
He was with the 40th for two years before being assigned to the 550th in January.
Santiago was among the airmen to attend training at the Leonardo Helicopters Training Academy in Pennsylvania last fall.
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He said that the 550th is in charge of training crews on the new Grey Wolf and eventually, everyone at the 40th will go through conversion training.
Santiago flew his last flight on the Huey a few weeks ago and is now solely flying the Grey Wolf.
Most units standdown from their mission when they convert to a new aircraft, but in this case, the airmen have to keep their nuclear security mission going with the Huey while they convert to the Grey Wolf.
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Santiago said they’re learning the new helicopter, which has more capabilities, such as flares for countermeasures, which is new to the Huey crews. He said the Huey has been great, but is weight limited, so with the Grey Wolf, they can fly with more personnel and get out faster on alerts.
The 550th is scheduled to conduct test flights over the next few weeks with a lot of flying planned for April, according to Malmstrom public affairs.
Capt. Brock Flieger has been flying the Huey for about four years. He flew them at Andrews AFB in Washington, D.C., and with the 40th at Malmstrom for about a year before being assigned to the 550th.
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He said the 550th is handling initial operational testing and evaluation, then they’ll continue training crews from the 40th until the schoolhouse at Maxwell AFB in Alabama is ready to take on that work.
Malmstrom is the first operational base to receive the Grey Wolf, he said.
The Grey Wolf has been to Malmstrom a few times for testing the aircraft in certain conditions, such has high, hot and heavy, which is challenging, Flieger said, and whiteout conditions.
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Once the 550th completes testing and evaluation, Flieger said they’ll move faster on crew training.
The 550th is a provisional unit with an expiration date, he said, and once enough crews are trained, the 550th will standdown, the crews will go back to the 40th and they’ll solely fly the Grey Wolf for the nuclear security mission at Malmstrom.
As a pilot, “it’s night and day,” Flieger said of moving from the Huey to the Grey Wolf.
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“We love flying the Huey,” he said, but the Grey Wolf is different with more capabilities and automation. He said that it’s a pretty big shift from doing most tasks manually to letting the helicopter fly itself, freeing crews up to oversee the mission or handle other tasks.
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Flieger said the 550th aircrews are training with the tactical response force unit, which is a component of security forces that would be flown in should there be an emergency in the missile field and flies with the 40th to provide security support.
During the March 9 ceremony, Col. Philip Bryant, 582nd Helicopter Group commander, touched the Grey Wolf on his way to the stage to speak because he “just wanted to make sure it was real.”
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It was “truly monumental” to have the new helicopter, he said.
After Sept. 11, 2001, Air Force Global Strike Command reassessed nuclear security and the Huey became more involved in missile field security.
Bryant said that Huey crews developed new methods to protect the ICBM fleet and in 2015, the 582nd was activated to provide a unified command for the three Huey units at the three ICBM bases. The 582nd is headquartered at F.E. Warren AFB in Wyoming.
The Grey Wolf is an “incredible opportunity” for crews and the 550th and 40th will develop new tactics as the new aircraft is fielded.
They’ll convert at a “rapid pace,” Bryant said, and they can’t pause the mission for the conversion, but told airmen to “embrace that challenge.”
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Bryant told The Electric after the ceremony that Boeing is contracted to handle Grey Wolf maintenance during the initial standup and the Air Force is maintaining its current maintenance contract for the Hueys for now.
Gen. Thomas Bussiere, AFGSC commander, said the arrival of the Grey Wolf was “a pretty big day for Wing One.”
He said that the nuclear mission is the only one in the Defense Department when they transition from legacy aircraft such as the Huey, to the new Grey Wolf while having to maintain full operational capability.
It’s the same requirement for AFGSC as it transitions from the Minuteman III ICBM to the Sentinel weapon system over the next decade.
Bussiere told The Electric in an interview after the ceremony that airmen are excited about fielding a new weapon system, an opportunity he had earlier in his career.
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“It’s a marriage between the innovation of the airmen and the capabilities of the new weapon system,” he told The Electric, as they develop new tactics and tailor the aircraft to their mission.
Sen. Jon Tester spoke of the Grey Wolf, Sentinel and new weapons generation facility that is also currently under construction at Malmstrom.
It’s all modernization that’s “long overdue,” he said.
To the airmen, being first isn’t always easy, he said, but they get to set the standard with the Grey Wolf.
Tester said they’ve been working on replacing the Huey for years but now that the first one has arrived, “this is happening.”
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On Sentinel, he told The Electric that the review required under the Nunn-McCurdy Act, which is triggered whenever a program incurs a cost or schedule overrun of more than 15 percent, should be completed by June.
He said the project needs to be done so he doesn’t mind the review to ensure it’s done right.
Tester said they need to hold the Air Force and Northrop Grumman, the Sentinel contractor, accountable to get the project done. He said that once the Nunn-McCurdy Act review is complete, he intends to push the Air Force for an updated timeline on the project.
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He said Great Falls will see benefits and challenges from the Sentinel upgrade. He said that some who come for the project will likely stay and it “could be a boom for Great Falls.”
