Originally Posted by Stinger10
a complex helicopter that cost 5x more per/hr to fly
Where do you get that number from? The highest figure quoted by the Army so far has been $2,500, with the service "
think[ing] it can lower that cost to $2,100 per hour." As stated above, that $2,500 is a fully burdened cost, with the TH-67 hourly being over $1,000 using the same metric.
Originally Posted by Stinger10
Starting to sound like the Army needs a home for the Lakota and is putting a square peg into a round hole just to make their aviation re-alignment plan work out; at the taxpayers expense.
No, the Army was always planning to replace the TH-67s with a twin ("TH-XX").
Originally Posted by SASless
In the time of tight budgets....the Army is going to try to convince Congress operating the Lakota's is cheaper than operating Jet Rangers (Kiowa's)
The only cost argument made so far is that replacing the KW with the Apache is more affordable than funding CASUP or AAS. Yes, the Apache's hourly costs are significantly higher, but AMCOM's argument is that the
$10 Billion spend on CASUP (and/or the
$6 - 8 Billion spend on AAS) is avoided, or at least
deferred until an FVL-L is available. The only argument presented for the switch from the Creek to the Lakota has been that it meets the service's pre-existing plans to switchover to a glass equipped twin for its training needs. I doubt Rucker would try to portray it as a cheaper solution, save that it avoids the need for a brand
new purchase of twins.
Originally Posted by SASless
Why not SLEP them back to Trainer Mod's
$7 Billion.
Originally Posted by Thax
$3000 per hour on hover training
Again, unless we're hiring
Gisele Bundchen to do the training, it's not going to be $3,000 per hour.
Originally Posted by AAKEE
German army uses EC135/635 for basic training
Thanks for the update - interesting to know that the switch has already been made for BHT I. I knew the 105 is due to soldier on at Celle until 2017 but that makes sense, given that the active fleet is already down to 47 BOs (out of 79 on paper).
I/C