A CBO Study: An Analysis of U.S. Army Helicopter Programs PDF Download

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Languages : en
Pages : 91

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Book Description
The aviation branch has become an important asset of the U.S. Army. Its attack, scout, and utility helicopters played major roles in the Vietnam War and in operations in the Persian Gulf. The Army plans to rely on its aviation assets increasingly in the future to provide timely tactical intelligence and transport capabilities as well as flexible firepower. The Army's helicopter fleet is aging, however. Although the Army invested heavily in the 1980s to purchase new combat and utility helicopters, more than half of all of the helicopters currently in the Army's inventory are Vietnam-era aircraft. Many of those helicopters have exceeded their useful service life, and the Army would like to retire them. But even though the Army is reducing the size of its helicopter fleet as it reduces its overall force structure, it does not have enough modern aircraft to fill all of its requirements. The Army plans to buy a substantial number of new helicopters starting in 2004, but those helicopters are limited to combat aircraft; they do not include any new utility helicopters. Furthermore, the Army does not intend to buy any new helicopters at all between 1996 and 2004. Consequently, it will have to retain many Vietnam-era combat helicopters well into the next century and hundreds of Vietnam-era utility helicopters for the foreseeable future.