Saturday, December 20, 2014

Congress tells Army hands off Guard's Apaches in NDAA

Army, Guard Set On Collision Course For 2015 « Breaking Defense - Defense industry news, analysis and commentary
WASHINGTON: A major battle is brewing between the regular Army and National Guard. While Congress has frozen the planned transfer of the Guard’s Apache gunships to active-duty units, the Army is already taking steps that may make it much harder to keep the helicopters in the Guard.
The Aviation Restructure Initiative calls for all Apaches to be moved from the Guard to the active Army. That proved so controversial that Congress, in the recently-passed National Defense Authorization Act, created a National Commission on the Future Structure of the Army to evaluate not only ARI but the overall balance between active, Guard, and Reserve forces. In the meantime, the NDAA bans any Apache transfers in ’15 and limits transfers in ’16 to 48 aircraft. Of course, the commissioners need to get appointed, summon witnesses, hear testimony, reach consensus and write their report between now and February 1st, 2016.

Previously:

spendergast: Army aviation to ditch single engine helos, add UAVs to scout order of battle

No comments: