FLRAA will go to select Guard units ahead of most of the regular Army, Gen. McConville said. That’s a far cry from past conflicts over helicopters.

UPDATED with comment from Army Commission & National Guard Association of the US WASHINGTON: The Army $7.5 billion wishlist for Congress, obtained by Breaking Defense, of needs that didn’t fit in its 2017 budget includes $1.64 billion for new weapons and $1.2 billion to implement the recommendations of the National Commission on the Future of the Army to retain four National… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: The Pentagon’s hardest-nosed accountants have endorsed the Army’s Aviation Restructure Initiative. ARI is a controversial cost-cutting plan which would retire the Vietnam-vintage OH-58 Kiowa scout helicopters and replace them with AH-64 Apache gunships taken from the National Guard. The Army said ARI, once fully implemented, would save $1.09 billion a year. In a document… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: After 15 months of bitter public debate between regular Army leadership and National Guard advocates, the commission Congress created to settle the matter met for the first time Friday and chose its chair and vice-chair, announced today. Heading the commission will be Gen. Carter Ham, a retired regular officer, while his No. 2 will… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: National Guard attack helicopter units just can’t be as battle-ready as full-time regular Army ones, Deputy Secretary of Defense Christine Fox has been telling the Hill. That’s why the Guard should give all its AH-64 Apache gunships to the active-duty force to replace older aircraft lost to budget cuts. “Combat elements must be in… Keep reading →

After more than two months of escalating conflict, the powerful National Guard Association of the US downshifted today and took a markedly more conciliatory tone towards the Army leaders it had been savaging just last week. As Army Sec. John McHugh and Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno testified before the House Armed Services Committee,… Keep reading →

The National Guard has lost the budget battle inside the administration. But it has hardly lost the war. “We are disappointed by today’s budget preview, but we are not surprised. Nor are we defeated,” declared retired Maj. Gen. Gus Hargett, president of influential National Guard Association of the United States, in a statement released shortly… Keep reading →

“To be honest, we feel betrayed.” That’s what one National Guard gunship pilot told me when I asked him about the Army’s plan to strip the Guard of all its AH-64 Apache attack helicopters. That plan — still awaiting approval by President Obama before he includes it in his budget request for fiscal year 2015… Keep reading →