{"id":66427,"date":"2023-12-20T19:58:01","date_gmt":"2023-12-20T19:58:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2023\/12\/20\/us-army-to-trim-black-hawk-helicopter-fleet\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T00:53:00","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T00:53:00","slug":"us-army-to-trim-black-hawk-helicopter-fleet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/newsletters\/2023\/12\/20\/us-army-to-trim-black-hawk-helicopter-fleet\/","title":{"rendered":"US Army to trim Black Hawk helicopter fleet"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 The U.S. Army is readying to trim its UH-60 Black Hawk utility helicopter <\/a>fleet by nearly 8% as it prepares to field a replacement, Maj. Gen. Mac McCurry, the Army\u2019s Aviation Center of Excellence commander, told Defense News in a recent interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The service plans to cut roughly 157 Black Hawks, or 7.5% of its total utility fleet, from its active-duty component. McCurry said the move is intended to help the Army optimize its current fleet while making room in the budget for the Black Hawk\u2019s replacement, the Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft, or FLRAA<\/a>, that will begin fielding in the early 2030s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A year ago, the Army chose Textron-Bell\u2019s V-280 Valor tiltrotor aircraft<\/a> to replace the 40-year-old Sikorsky-manufactured UH-60. The Army also has plans to replace the Boeing-made AH-64 Apache attack helicopter with the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft. Two companies are building competitive demonstrator aircraft. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really about balancing the current readiness with the procurement and fielding in the future,\u201d McCurry said. \u201cAs we looked at our utility fleet specifically, we had grown that fleet since early in the 2000s by over 300 aircraft.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That growth <\/b>kept pace with the Army\u2019s higher <\/b>end strength during continuous rotations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Black Hawk fleet in the fiscal 2004 timeframe consisted of 1,806 aircraft, but rose to 2,135 aircraft during counterinsurgency operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, with a smaller force, the service doesn\u2019t need to keep all of those helicopters in service, he said. The total will now drop to 1,978 aircraft.<\/p>\n\n\n\t