As telegraphed by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel Feb. 25, the Army’s $120.5 billion portion of the president’s budget request for fiscal year 2015 divests OH-58 Kiowa Warrior helicopters and moves AH-64 Apache helicopters from the National Guard to the active component.
In exchange for the Apaches, the active Army will transfer UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters to the National Guard, where they will “bolster the Guard’s needed capabilities in areas like disaster relief and emergency response,” Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said at a Feb. 24 preview of the budget.
These moves were an Army aviation initiative unveiled in its pre-decisional form in mid-January by the commanding general of the Aviation Center of Excellence and Fort Rucker–something rarely done.
Hagel said, “These changes to the Guard’s helicopter fleet are part of a broader realignment of Army aviation designed to modernize its fleet and make it highly capable and more affordable.”
The plan is to also retire the OH-58 Kiowa helicopters and the JetRanger training helicopters used at Ft. Rucker, Ala.
“The active Army’s overall fleet would decrease by about 25 percent, but it would be significantly modernized under the president’s budget plan,” Hagel said.
The rationale for these moves is that “experience shows that specialties requiring greater collective training to achieve combat proficiency and service integration should reside in the full-time force, where these capabilities will be more ready and available to commanders.”
The Guard’s fleet of helicopters would decline by eight percent, but it would gain new Black Hawks and the Army will sustain the Guard’s fleet of Light Utility Helicopters.
In addition to the transfers and retirements, the FY ’15 budget request supports key UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter investments. There is $1.44 billion to buy for 55 UH-60M helicopters, 24 HH-60M helicopters and mission equipment packages.
Other program support comes for CH-47 Chinook, $1.03 billion to buy 26 remanufactured aircraft and six new built CH-47F aircraft and associated modifications to the fleet.
Another $833 million will go to Apache to buy 25 remanufactured AH-64Es –the Block III—aircraft, and associated mods to the existing AH-64D fleet.