Army leaders have reiterated their commitment to retiring older helicopter models including Sikorsky UH-60L Black Hawks and Boeing AH-64D Apaches.
Speaking at the Army Aviation Association of America conference in Nashville on 16 April, senior officers from the US Army aviation corps revealed plans to sell some of those aircraft at auction. Proceeds will help fund newer models.
“We’re definitely moving away from Lima model Black Hawks,” says Major General Clair Gill, chief of the army’s aviation branch. “We’re going to be modernising every formation with the latest generation of Black Hawks, as we can and our budget allows.”
The army faces significant budget pressure as Washington de-emphasises the type of ground-intensive combat operations seen during counterinsurgency operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and prioritises the navy and air force for near-peer conflict.
A draft of the fiscal year 2027 US defence budget contains steep cuts to aircraft procurement for the army, which faces its own struggle to modernise forces. The service has cancelled major aviation procurement programmes in recent years to save costs and last year announced it would divest older model Apaches and Black Hawks.
Other programmes, like the new GE Aerospace T901 Improved Turbine Engine, are in a state of limbo given existing funding and face an uncertain future.
Given its challenged fiscal situation, the army plans to use the divestment of older Black Hawks as an opportunity to generate funds to support new aircraft purchases.
“As we divest them, we’ll take those proceeds that we are able to get back through the auction process, and then we’ll reinvest them [in] additional buys” says Brigadier General David Phillips with the army’s aviation acquisition office.
The generals did not specify their plans for the retiring D-model Apaches. Washington leased eight AH-64Ds to Poland in 2023 to jumpstart training ahead of a massive 96-aircraft order from Warsaw for new AH-64Es.
The army continues to buy new-build UH-60Ms and has an active-multi year contract with Boeing to buy remanufactured AH-64 Apaches updated to the latest standard.
Boeing says that contract covers production through 2029, which also covers 106 export aircraft for Poland, Kuwait and Egypt.
While the prospect of cuts to aircraft procurement by the US Army raise the spectre of instability within the US rotorcraft industry, Phillips says the service is working with its three main suppliers – Sikorsky, Boeing and Bell – to maintain production, in part through exports.
“We’re in real time discussions with all three sets of industry partners to ensure that we’re setting that up appropriately to capture all that demand, plus opportunities for any army procurements that we have from the divestiture of the UH-60 Limas,” he says.
Gill says units currently operating L-model Black Hawks will get the newer Mike versions, particularly as some existing UH-60M operators receive the new Bell MV-75 Cheyenne II tiltrotor in the 2030s.
The two-star general adds that the army remains committed to that programme, despite pressures elsewhere.
“It’s a cornerstone for how we’re going to project combat power, conduct reconnaissance and enable manoeuvre across extended distances in a future fight,” Gill says.
As the army and Bell prepare to begin a lengthy test campaign for MV-75 in 2027, Phillips believes the service’s procurement teams have created a framework that provides an “appropriate demand signal” to vertical lift suppliers, while still retaining the ability to adjust the quantity of aircraft purchases year-to-year.
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