Vertical Flight

The Army's fiscal year 2019 budget request includes increased research, development, test and evaluation funding to support the efforts of the cross-functional teams pursuing senior leaders' six modernization priorities.

The Pentagon's independent operational test and evaluation office has warned the Navy its CH-53K heavy-lift helicopter is unlikely to meet the service's goal of declaring initial operational capability in December 2019, becoming the second office to do so.

The Army has received congressional approval for the final disposition of AH-64 Apaches from the Army National Guard, which will retain four of its eight attack reconnaissance battalions.

After a nine-month rotational deployment to Europe demonstrated navigational challenges for Army aviation, the service has moved to find an interim solution.

Lawmakers dropped a provision from the fiscal year 2018 defense policy bill that would have allowed the defense secretary to let the Air Force issue a sole-source procurement contract instead of continuing an open competition to replace the Bell UH-1N helicopter.

Army aviation is struggling to balance an array of responsibilities that include waging the current fight, training for the next and upgrading airframes for the future, according to the branch chief.

The Navy is seeking cost-effective solutions for an upgraded engine inlet system to increase particle filtration efficiency and improve engine time-on-wing, according to a request for information.

The Army is employing "an open approach" to establishing and refining requirements for the first aircraft in the Future Vertical Lift family of systems, according to the program's Training and Doctrine Command capability manager.

The Army's aviation branch is crafting new doctrine and revising its training emphasis to better operate in a complex environment against a near-peer adversary, according to the commander of the Aviation Center of Excellence.