In February 2026, the US Army selected three companies to participate in Phase III of its Flight School Next (FSN) programme. Bell, Lockheed Martin and M1 Support Services will now fight it out to replace the Airbus UH-72A Lakota that is currently used by the US Army Aviation Center of Excellence (USAACE) to provide its Initial Entry Rotary Wing (IERW) training at Fort Rucker, Alabama. One company not to progress to Phase III was Airbus which advocated the continued use of its UH-72A.

In terms of the helicopters being proposed, Bell is offering its Bell 505 Jetranger X, while Lockheed Martin and M1 are pushing the Robinson TH-66 Sage, the military variant of the R66 NxG. Both single-engine platforms are well regarded and considered as good ab initio training aircraft. A contract award is expected in September 2026.

The first twin-engine UH-72A, a variant of the H-145, arrived at Fort Rucker in March 2015, was used on its first IERW course in 2020 and was heralded as a major improvement over its single-engine predecessor, the TH-67 Creek. Bought under a sole-source contract, as the type was already in service with the US Army as a utility helicopter, the platform was lauded for its sophisticated avionics and glass cockpit displays that were also to be found on the US Army’s combat helicopters and therefore the UH-72A provided an easier transition compared to the analogue displays found in the TH-67.

Many nations, including Australia, France, Germany and the UK use the H135/145 family of helicopters for pilot training without problems and celebrate the ability to download training from their more expensive-to-operate frontline aircraft. In short, investment in a more capable training aircraft leads to cost savings in the frontline fleet. During its time at Fort Rucker the UH-72A has trained just over 10,000 students and has accumulated over one million flight hours without a single aircraft loss.

With the US Army citing cost per flight hour, too much automation, maintenance issues, availability and most damningly, a training gap leading to operational accidents, what has really caused this about-face in US Army opinion concerning the UH-72A?

It is not just about the helicopter. The current IERW course is a mess. The Government owns the aircraft and four contractors provide maintenance, flight instruction, logistic support and classroom/simulator instruction. “Today, the government is the integrator for four independent contracts,” the US Army Contracting Command’s FSN Team Lead, Susan Ruzicka explained. “Issues in one area can affect the others, and the government has to coordinate across all parties. A consolidated approach will increase efficiency and effectiveness.”

The inefficiency of the current system is exacerbated by the fact that each of the four contracts has to be re-bid every five years and this approach, like so many Department of War (DoW) training contracts, leads to uncertainty, disruption and inefficiencies.

The US Army wants FSN to be a contactor-owned, contractor-operated (COCO) solution that will see either Bell, Lockheed Martin or M1 Support Services take complete ownership, control and management of all aspects of the programme. This is clearly a sensible approach and could eliminate many of the inefficiencies found in the current IERW process.

IERW trains between 980 and 1400 pilots each year with a requirement to graduate 50 to 54 pilots each month for the Advanced Graduate Flight Training courses that transition pilots to their frontline aircraft, the UH-60, AH-64, CH-47 or to attend the fixed-wing course at Dothan. The FSN requirement is to train 900 to 1,500 pilots annually over its expected 26 year term.

Perhaps the writing is already on the wall for Bell and its synthetic training partner, TRU Simulation, in that the US Army has already conducted what it terms, an ‘FAA Part 141 Helicopter Flight School Pilot Program’. Crew Training International, alongside its partner, the Helicopter Institute, ran the trials that were sponsored by USAACE to train participants as instrument qualified, rotary-wing helicopter pilots to meet FAA Part 141 requirements. The pilot programme was conducted at Marianna, Florida using the Robinson TH-66 Sage.

Returning to the question of the UH-72A and the increase in accidents – or ‘mishaps’ in DoW parlance – this growing accident trend has been seen across all US services over recent years and not just the Army. According to Senator Elizabeth Warren, during a four-and-a-half year period spanning 2020 through 2024, the US DoW suffered 4,820 mishaps, with 222 being defined as Class A – mishaps causing death, permanent disability or costing more than USD 2.5 million.

Although Army Contracting Command has recognised that a lack of consolidated training leads to “uncertainty and disruption” within the training pipeline, another factor that could be at play is an over-reliance on simulation and in particular, trading flight time for simulation to save costs. Modern simulation is a fabulous tool but it lacks jeopardy and needs to be balanced carefully against the lessons that can be learned in the actual cockpit during live flight.