The Army's Flight School Next program
 

Hello, I'm not a helicopter industry tech or administrator, just a guy who likes reading up on copters. I served in the Army in the late 90s and early 2000s and interested in them, knowing the specs, and also building scale models (Revell-Monogram, Esci, etc).
I also follow the goings on in terms of the upgrade and replacement programs, who's buying what, refurbing what, etc. The current helicopter program is the Flight School Next, which looks to introduce a new single engine type to serve as the Army's trainer helo. I could paste a whole article here, but I won't - i'll drop the link that seems to explain the program clearly.
https://www.megaproject.com/news/fac...aining-refresh
The goal is to replace the UH-72 in the training role with about 200 units, and a section of text here says who is partaking,
** Bell, Enstrom, Leonardo Helicopters, MD Helicopters, Robinson Helicopter Co. and Schweizer are among the airframers that have told Aviation Week they hope to bid for the contract **
There's a commercial on youtube put out by MD Helos that promotes their MD530. The models would be i'm guessing, the Bell 505, Enstrom's 480, Leo's AW119 (just like the Navy's TH-73), the Robby R44 (already is being shown to Army trainers), and the Schweiser S300. What about Airbus?
One piece of text in the article confuses me;
** Some 40 companies submitted white papers with initial proposals at the end of last year ** ... how can 40 companies be potentially involved; I didn't know there were that many aerospace companies in the USA. Maybe someone can clarify this.
What do you think of this program? Who do you think has a chance at winning?

With my profound maritime bias (Navy Pilot, retired) I'd like to see them use Leo's AW119 (just like the Navy's TH-73). There is precedent for that: Army adopted the TH-57 Sea Ranger / Bell 206B => TH-67 Creek in the early 1990's.
Sea Ranger had been used at Whiting Field since well before I got there (early 80's).
The Navy has the Instrument Training spec covered in that one. Army need not reinvent that wheel.
And they have a simulator package already established.

If the Bell 505X can get a certified instrument package, though, that might also be a good choice.

then chuck in also Robinson Helicopters TH-66 as Helicopter Institute is already using it as they have IERW contract so Robinson is hoping they have a leg in

https://www.robinsonheli.com/r66/military-trainer

and Bell 505 Flight School Next goes to advance phase of compeition

https://news.bellflight.com/en-US/25...t-competition/

cheers

Lockheed Martin with Robinson
 

In a surprise twist

https://news.lockheedmartin.com/2026...ining-Platform

cheers

It was expected noting the other plays. All FSN will do is push time and cost onto very expensive platforms. This is all about saving money on TRADOC’s aviation budget line and using the causal effect of loss of tail rotor authority in several accidents as the stick. A better aviator it probably won’t make unless one advocates a return to Nam……….

Is V2X still on board? They were known to be bidding with the Bell 505 at Phase II

Yeppers V2X are

https://investors.gov2x.com/news/new...n/default.aspx

cheers

Bell enters Phase 4
 

https://news.bellflight.com/en-US/26...t-competition/

cheers