Army ends 20-year helicopter program

"George Z. Bush" wrote in
:


"Garrison Hilliard" wrote in message
...

(Snip)

The Comanche program was started in 1983 and had survived many
reviews. Under
a
restructuring worked out in 2002, a decision on going ahead with
initial low-rate production was to be made in 2007, with the first
Comanches delivered to the Army in 2009 and full-rate production to
begin in 2010.

Since this Reagan era DOD project survived the Reagan DOD evaluations,
and those of Daddy Bush, and those of Bill Clinton, we now have
arrived at the present situation, with our present DOD deciding that
the project was unworthy of completion and not worth spending any more
money on. Why do I have that uneasy feeling that brain surgery is
about to be done by our neighborhood podiatrist? Why do I feel that
they'd rather spend the money on some other project, like Star Wars,
that they'd like rather than this one that the Army has said all along
that it needs?

George Z.



Maybe RPVs or armed UAVs weren't seen as being practical back then?
Also the recent anti-helo tactics (RPGs')developed by the Moslems and the
highly-effective MANPADS SAMs means the low-level threat makes manned helos
too risky.

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik-at-kua.net

I'd be very surprised if a lot of the technology created for this program
doesn't suddenly appear in law enforcement and other types of government flight
applications.

v/r
Gordon
====(A+C====
USN SAR

Donate your memories - write a note on the back and send your old photos to a
reputable museum, don't take them with you when you're gone.