Kicking the Guard out of attack helos is part of a set of good moves for the Army

By Maj. Crispin Burke,
U.S. Army


Best Defense guest
columnist

Make
no mistake: Army Aviation will feel the effects of sequestration and be forced
to cut back, along with the rest of the Army. However, if the Army concentrates
on putting trained and qualified people
in the right organizations, armed
with the right equipment, Army
Aviation can weather today's budget cuts, and move forward into the 21st century.

A
bold new proposal would do just that -- completely revamping the Army's
aviation brigades in both the active and reserve components by divesting some
aircraft, reallocating others, and by integrating Unmanned Aerial Systems
(colloquially called "drones") with manned aircraft.

According to the proposal, recently reviewed by
the secretary of defense, the Army would retire its entire fleet of single-engine
helicopters, including 368 OH-58D scout helicopters, 228 elderly OH-58A/Cs, and
182 TH-67 trainers -- a grand total of 778 aircraft. To compensate for the
losses, the Army would radically re-shuffle its remaining dual-engine aircraft
-- replacing the active-duty OH-58 losses with AH-64 Apache helicopters drawn
from the National Guard and Reserve, and by moving many of the newly-acquired
LUH-72 Lakotas to the training role.

The
plan, of course, is not without its detractors. According to Politico, fifty state governors voiced their dismay over the loss of the
Guard's Apache helicopters in a letter to President Obama. Indeed, each
aircraft lost represents not just a machine, but an aircrew, a team of
maintainers, and plenty of jobs, livelihoods, and families affected.

Moreover,
the loss of the OH-58D is certainly a bitter one. But budget cuts are coming,
and Army Aviation is left with few alternatives, following the failure of both
expensive replacements (Comanche in 2003), and off-the-shelf options (Armed Recon Aircraft in 2008 and Armed Aerial Scout in 2013). It's
important to note, though, that reconnaissance involves more than just aircraft
-- it's trained and qualified people, and fortunately, OH-58 pilots are among
the most experienced in the Army. The OH-58 community has an incredible warrior
ethos, and despite the loss of a beloved airframe, their expertise will matter most. We shouldn't fear aircraft transitions
-- after all, were we a less capable force when we transitioned from Hueys to
Black Hawks, or from Cobras to Apaches?

Of
course, once Army Aviation gives people the right training to do the job, it's
time to focus on the organizations --
perhaps the most audacious step in the way forward. The Army National Guard
would face some difficult challenges, particularly as its Apache pilots
transition to a new aircraft (the UH-60 Black Hawk), and with it, a new
mission.

Fortunately,
Black Hawks are far more useful for homeland defense and providing defense
support for civil authorities (Title 32). The Guard would be receiving 111 of
them to offset the loss of the Apaches. Moreover, the Guard would still be able
to provide Title 10 to overseas fights through its remaining fleet of Black
Hawks and CH-47 Chinooks. In fact, proportionally speaking, the Army National
Guard would suffer less than the
active component, in terms of total aircraft loss (just 17 percent of the Guard
force, compared with to nearly 30 percent of the active component).

With
regards to the active component, the Army has also taken the unprecedented step
of pairing unmanned aircraft with manned aircraft. Each newly-formed Attack
Reconnaissance Squadron would consist of three troops of eight AH-64 Apaches
apiece. Each troop, in turn, would be augmented with a platoon of four Shadow
drones, many of which would be culled from deactivated BCTs. Each aviation
brigade, additionally, would receive a company of 12 armed Grey Eagle UAS, a true
medium-altitude, long endurance (MALE) airframe. It's an
acknowledgement that unmanned aviation is here to stay -- manned and unmanned
crewmembers will train, deploy, and fight alongside one another on a permanent
basis. In fact, the Army is arguably far ahead of the other services in this
regard.

Once
we have the right people, placed in the right organizations, the equipment falls into place. If all goes
as planned, the rotary-wing community will be an entirely dual-engine force. Students
will begin their aviation career in the LUH-72 Lakota, recently acquired by the
Army, with a proven track record in medical evacuation and law enforcement.

Old-timers
may lament the Lakota's glass cockpit, dual engines, and GPS, but the fact of
the matter is every single combat aircraft in the conventional U.S. Army's
inventory has these features. We need to seriously rethink what we should
expect from students in flight school. Whereas, 10 years ago, the use of GPS
would have been verboten, today, it's
a necessity, as GPS approaches dominate the instrument routes. Moreover, while
students may no longer perform autorotations all the way to the ground, they'll
have to learn to identify engine malfunctions in a multi-engine aircraft, a
skill which takes a considerable amount of time to learn as students progress
to new airframes.

All
told, reducing and simplifying the Army Aviation rotary-wing fleet -- from
seven airframes to four -- will save the community billions of dollars over the
years, and we'd be a much more modern and powerful force for it.

The
choice is clear -- proven people,
strong organizations, the right equipment.

Major Crispin Burke is
a serving U.S. Army officer. Direct all angry comments towards his Twitter
account, @CrispinBurke.