U.S. Army’s Latest Aviation Plan Prioritizes Replacement Of Cold War Scout & Assault Helicopters (From Forbes)

After considerable reflection and multiple false starts, the Army has settled on a roadmap for modernizing its fleet of combat helicopters. It will develop a new scout helicopter, a successor to the Black Hawk utility helicopter, and an unmanned aerial system to support rotorcraft while upgrading the Apache tank-killer and Chinook heavy-lift helicopter. The plan has many moving pieces, but fundamentally it is about shifting warfighting capabilities from an emphasis on counter-insurgency warfare to preparations for great-power competition with Russia and China. That calls for a significantly different fleet of combat helicopters. I have written a commentary for Forbes here.