Army Weighs Pros, Cons of Canceled Helicopter Program

[rangerrebew]

Army Weighs Pros, Cons of Canceled Helicopter Program
5/15/2024
By Laura Heckmann   
 
DENVER — When the Army announced the cancellation of its Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft in February, it marked the service’s fourth failed attempt to replace the Kiowa scout helicopter, with billions of dollars sunk into another scrapped program.

Nearly three months later, Army and industry officials insisted it’s time to embrace the lessons learned and move on.

“That decision is made. We are moving out,” retired Army Maj. Gen. William Gayler, senior strategic advisor at PeopleTec, said during a panel discussion at the Army Aviation Mission Solutions Summit in April.

The decision was an expensive one, however. The FARA program cost $2.4 billion and followed three other tanked Army aviation programs to replace its attack and scout helicopters over the past 20 years: the Comanche attack helicopter in 2004, the Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter in 2008 and the Armed Aerial Scout in 2014.

https://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2024/5/15/army-weighs-pros-cons-of-canceled-helicopter-program

[rangerrebew]

SAY IT ISN'T SO!!  Not another cancelled weapons program?!

[PeteS in CA]

The OH-58 has been around since the early 60s, though I'm sure the "F" model is more capable and reliable than the version that first entered service. The Same can be said of the venerable AH-1, which I think is currently at Rev "Z". Sometimes something is just so good that the improvements in a new model are not significant enough to buy the new model.