Over the last two decades, the U.S. Marine Corps has transformed its aviation arm. The U.S. Army has not; instead, it has upgraded helicopters that debuted during the Cold War. Efforts to introduce new Army combat helicopters have failed. Now the Army has an opportunity to try again, in the form of its Future Vertical Lift family of rotorcraft. If the Army sticks with its existing plan for FVL, it won’t begin bending metal until around 2030. If, on the other hand, it compresses the schedule by leveraging technology already developed in a precursor program, it could have a new scout or utility rotorcraft entering the force around 2025. It definitely should follow the latter course, for the sake of warfighters and taxpayers alike. I have written a commentary for Forbes here.
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