While some projections have suggested that the operation and maintenance cost per flight hour for a Lakota is about $2,500, vs. $600 an hour for the TH-67, Col. John Lindsay, director of aviation G-3/5/7, told ITA in a June 18 interview at the Pentagon that those estimates are not accurate.
Lindsay said that the TH-67 actually costs about $1,200 per flight hour -- $560.58 for parts and $704.37 for support maintenance per flight hour -- while he believes the Army can reduce the projected cost of the Lakota. "Conservatively, the Army has estimated that we will bring the cost per flying hour for the LUH-72 down to $2,100 an hour," he stated.
The service may be able to reduce the cost per flight hour down to $1,900, narrowing the gap between the cost of the TH-67 and the LUH-72, he contended. "It's certainly not
five times more expensive to operate the LUH-72, as some would have you believe," Lindsay said. "This is the estimate that was put together, that was vetted by Army staff and also folks up at [the Office of the Secretary of Defense]."
Other savings could be realized through by reducing training hours. This could entail eliminating certain maneuvers more necessary for single-engine helicopter training, like autorotations to the ground -- which the Army calls "crash and bangs," Lindsay noted.