ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY

The Army must continue the work it has begun to update its fleet of helicopters with aircraft that can fly further and faster across the future battlefield, several top Army aviation experts said.

“Modernization is an imperative,” Brig. Gen. Robert Barrie, Aviation program executive officer, said March 17 as he appeared on a panel during the Association of the U.S. Army’s Global Force Next virtual conference. 

“I don't see it as a choice,” Barrie said. “It’s a matter of us prioritizing those efforts.”

Army aviation is on a “fantastic glide slope” as it continues to push ahead to develop next-generation aircraft for the future battlefield, said Maj. Gen. David Francis, commander of the Army Aviation Center of Excellence and Fort Rucker, Alabama.

The aircraft being developed as part of the Future Vertical Lift effort will “inform how we will fight in the future,” Francis said Oct. 15 during a Warriors Corner presentation as part of AUSA Now, the 2020 virtual annual meeting of the Association of the U.S. Army.

As the Army moves to replace its aging fleet of helicopters, the service must carefully manage long-term costs as it brings the next-generation aircraft into the force, according to a recent report.

The Army’s Future Vertical Lift program is one of its six top modernization priorities, and the service is working quickly to procure the new aircraft, with plans to field the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft in 2028 and the Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft in 2030.

The annual cost of replacing the Army’s aviation fleet is expected to decline in the 2020s, from about $4 billion in 2018 to about $1.5 billion in 2027, according to a new report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

CBO predicts costs will then rise to a peak of about $4.7 billion in 2032 before trending downward again.

The Army plans to phase out all its old Alpha-model UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters within the next five years, one of the service’s top acquisition officers said.

The Army has used the Black Hawk since the 1970s, and the venerable aircraft has undergone several upgrades since then, with Victor and Mike being the newest, digital models.