Army Aviation is Going Cheap

The Army is being forced to downsize its numbers and with the end of the conflict in Afghanistan possibly in sight, funding for the Army is also drastically decreasing.  This change in funding will affect all the branches within the Army, but will affect Army Aviation quite possibly the most because it already relies on such large numbers to run.  The Official Homepage of the United States Army recently published an article called Army Aviation Soaring high Despite Plummeting Budget, written by David Vergun, which looks at these problems that the branch will have to address in the near future. 

Heidi Shyu, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology

Heidi Shyu is the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology and spoke at the annual Quad A summit in Nashville this month.  She went into depth about the grim realizations of  the budget for the fiscal year in 2015.  The budget for fiscal year 2015 is under twenty-one billion dollars while the anticipated budget was going to be 32.6 billion dollars.  This much smaller budget will create complications for the aviation community so it is important to look at better and more efficient ways of conducting operations within the branch itself.  The change in budget is an effect of the long war that has been fought in Iraq and still in Afghanistan.  Government is looking to change the budget of the Department of Defense and downsize the entire military much like post the Cold War era.  After the fall of the Soviet Union, defense spending plummeted and the Army along with the other branches was forced to maintain an efficient Army with less resources.  This is the same case, just at a smaller scale.

AH-64 Apache

With respect to the themes of the course the article focuses on the sustainment part of G-T-S-R, and aviation's ability to redeploy.  To continue to sustain the aviation force the army is looking to modernize its current fleet of air frames. One example of this is within the article is "the Improved Engine Program, is a great leap forward to the next-generation engine, which will reduce fuel consumption 25 percent, increase performance, improve reliability and lower maintenance by 35 percent."  The Improved Turbine Engine Program will also increase engine life and decrease the horsepower-to-weight ratio by 65 percent.  These improvements are going to save money over time and most of the fiscal year budget of 2015 will go towards these improvements.  It is going to allow the aviation community a better chance of saving future dollars and being able to redeploy. 

The Aviation Community looks to continue to invest in science and technology that will give significant increases in the capabilities of the air frames within the branch.  Even with this decrease in the budget the Aviation Community will still be able to modernize its fleet of aircraft to provide cuts in costs for the future in maintenance and sustainment of these air frames.