PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - UH-72 to Rucker ? What's the Army thinking?
Old 10th Jul 2014, 21:33
  #50 (permalink)  
Lonewolf_50
 
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Texas
Age: 64
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The Navy, as it has fumbled the TH-57 replacement, has in one sense played into the Army's hands.

However, if you look at how JPATS worked out, this "it's all Joint" BS died like plains buffalo. I expect this grandstanding by the Army to likewise die. I'll suggest to you that tis is another of those "roles and missions" scraps that we saw after Dester Storm. Same crap, different day.

Army flight training: the old pattern was high school to flight school to the grave. They have improved since then, of course. Got a peek about ten years ago as Rucker restructured their top to bottom program when they moved the Huey from the progression .. well that was the plan. About then Air Force came crying to the Navy to glom onto our Helo Training pipeline, and brought a bunch of unfunded requirements with them. Short answer was: no thanks, guys, you either accept our product as is or go and figure it out.

They went elsewhere.

Army aviation had some good ideas that the Navy might have taken a closer look at than they did. Maybe we'll see some plagiarism ongoing as Navy figures out their way ahead. Would not hurt, IMO.

The sheer volume of Navy rotary wing production argues for more than one base even when you look at all of the Services' requirements. (I am still under that NDA from the early 2000's BRAC meetings I "got to go to." (I went kicking and screaming!!!!)

There are limits to what any one facility can provide, and you should not set up a single point of failure system. Been out of that business too long to comment further.
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