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Old 11th Oct 2023, 13:24
  #88 (permalink)  
Lonewolf_50
 
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Texas
Age: 64
Posts: 7,244
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CTR:
My apologies. That was for The Sultan. Whoops?

I disagree with you that it needed one for one replacement, but that's (1) a bit of an esoteric argument (how the Army folds UAV/Drones into their doctrine and ops) (2) and at the time of its retirement a combination of budget and manpower concerns, and requirements definition, were not ironed out.
See the topic of this thread: FARA (and its cousin, FLARA).

As to the TH-57.
That one's a little too close for me to discuss without deep frustration.
The Navy kicked the can down the road, year after year, on establishing the follow-on aircraft, getting the FAA acceptable instrument cert and simulation piece, and much more. I agree with you, they rode the TH-57 hard and put it away wet.
The various PMAs punted .... OK, I'll get off of my soap box.
Glad Navy finally got a more up to date Orange and White helicopter.
Full disclosure: I am biased - I'd have preferred a Bell product since I live in Texas.
I guess the bidding game didn't pan out for Bell on that one, which is a shame.
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