Why 2019 Needs To Be The Year The U.S. Army Picks Up The Pace On A New Long-Range Assault Aircraft (From Forbes)

It has been decades since the U.S. Army fielded a genuinely new combat rotorcraft. During that time, aerospace technology has advanced by leaps and bounds while threats have changed dramatically. The Army needs to get moving on fielding new airframes, and the place it should start is with a replacement for the Black Hawk air assault aircraft. Black Hawks are rugged and versatile, but they were first fielded four decades ago; today, soldiers need more range and speed to cope with emerging threats. Contractors have developed two world-class prototypes under the Joint Multi-Role Technology Demonstration that could provide a better solution for air assault and related missions. The Army should pick one fast and move out on producing Black Hawk’s successor, because it will take decades to replace the 2,000+ Black Hawks in the current fleet. I have written a commentary for Forbes here.