The way I read what’s happening with all this is somewhat of a repeat of what happened when Comanche was axed.
That program sucked all the oxygen out of the room as far as funding went and the rest of the Army fleet suffered greatly from that lack of investment. The same has been happening in the past couple of years, I’ve seen aircraft sit in flyable storage for lack of parts for weeks to up to 6 months, parts that should be readily available.
The reinvestment in the Army fleet, in the form of spares and most importantly an eventual new engine for AH-64 and UH-60 that will allow for more range, as well as an uprated T55 engine for Block II Chinook.
It also brings in basically a single UH-60 variant (“Mike” model) for the Army active component and reserves(and even the Air Force HH-60W has more in common with Mike than other variants) Once again, a great thing for the supply chain.
longer term I think the Army will also want MOSA incorporated into the UH-60, they will possibly be able to leverage whatever was learned with UH-60V.
Meanwhile, they will also be able to focus on the V-280 development and work toward an unmanned capability.
I don’t think Army Aviation protested, I think they made the best decision in the face of a changing battlefield environment, and for once they did it without wasting quite as much time and money as they normally do.🤣
FltMech