Will Army Aviation Break Out of its Rut?

[unhappycamper]

Will Army Aviation Break Out of its Rut?

AUSA hosts the Army Aviation Symposium this week, which gives me the perfect excuse to ask one of my favorite questions: What will it take to get US military helicopter technology out of its long and barren rut?

I believe the last all-new aircraft designed, built and fielded for the US military was the UH-60A Black Hawk. The Army spends about $3 billion a year on helicopters, but all of that money pays for derivatives of technology originally deployed between 30 and 50 years ago, or militarized versions of civil helicopters.

Arguably no other sector of advanced US military technology – fighters, airlifters, UAVs, ships, fighting vehicles, missiles, satellites, etc – has tolerated a longer and deeper drought of deployable innovation.

Think about it: the last all-new aircraft designed for the army was the Sikorsky/Boeing RAH-66 Comanche, and that program was cancelled in 2004 after only two prototypes were built.

The Comanche would have been the first helicopter to introduce stealth design characteristics, but the fundamental limitations of helicopter performance – speed, range and payload – have been stuck in a paralyzing rut since the late-1960s.


Rest of article and a good discussion at: http://www.defensetech.org/archives/003949.html?wh=wh

[thunder rising]

1. Would this be on top of the $500B budget?

And considering after 8 years of Republican "kill them all and let God sort them out" rule, why should I care. We do not have an enemy that we can use it against anyway.