Budget For Helicopter Acquisition Cut Sharply

Lawmakers from Connecticut and their allies on Capitol Hill are fighting back against a Pentagon plan to sharply cut the number of Black Hawk helicopters budgeted for next year.

The online news site The Hour relays a report from the CT Mirror that indicates the Pentagon's 2017 budget requests $976 million for 36 of the Sikorsky helicopters, down from the $1.77 billion for 107 Black Hawks purchased by the government this year. The Army's aviation budget alone has been cut by about $2 billion in FY 2017.

Members of the Connecticut congressional delegation have been working to restore some of the cuts. Among them are Black Hawks that would have replaced aging Huey helicopters at intercontinental ballistic missiles at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana, Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota and F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming. New aircraft for those bases were deferred in favor of the development of a new Sikorsky HH-60W SAR helicopter for the Air Force. Members of Congress from Connecticut where Sikorsky is headquartered, as well as Senators and Representatives from the states where the bases are located have made an appeal to the Pentagon's top officials to restore those aircraft.

Last Friday, nine senators including both from Connecticut sent a letter to Air Force Secretary Deborah James saying that those older UH-1N aircraft should be replaced sooner rather than later. “We request the Air Force identify and put forth for congressional consideration the fastest and most cost effective method to replace the UH-1N helicopters as soon as possible,” the senators wrote. “The Air Force has known the shortfalls of the UH-1N helicopter for too long; the cost of delaying action is far too great a risk for our nation to take.”

(Image from file)

FMI: www.defense.gov