US Army helicopter budgets have managed to escape cuts in the current sweeping defence spending reviews, army aviation branch chief Maj Gen Anthony Crutchfield said.
The branch is recapitalising thousands of helicopters during the next decade while investing to develop a family of next-generation, high-speed rotorcraft to enter service by 2030.
Total annual procurement spending on the army aviation branch is $8.5 billion, which consumes 38% of the army's overall procurement budget.
Helicopters are still the most "heavily demanded" asset in the army, which has protected the aviation branch's modernisation accounts, Crutchfield said.
"The modernisation programmes and the dollars associated with those modernisation programmes are holding right now," he said.
"Even in the period of declining recourses, the monies for those modernisation programmes are holding for army aviation."
However, it was not clear if Crutchfield's comments meant the aviation branch's current plan to sign multi-year procurement deals for Boeing CH-47F Chinooks and Sikorsky UH-60M Black Hawks remain protected.
Col Bob Marion, CH-47F project manager, said he believed Crutchfield's remarks meant the army has full support to buy all 440 Chinooks in the programme of record, but perhaps not to the same schedule.
The army released a request for proposals to Boeing in August for pricing a five-year deal for 155 CH-47Fs. The company plans to submit its response in November, launching a 14-month series of negotiations before a scheduled contract award in January 2013.
Source: Flight International
