NASHVILLE, Tenn.–Senior Army aviators are well aware that defense budgets are being squeezed, but they plan to make a strong case to fund needed programs as others vie for the same procurement dollars.
“We will not get everything we want, but we need to get everything we need,” Aviation Branch Chief Maj. Gen. Anthony Crutchfield said at a media briefing at the Army Aviation Association of America annual conference here.
“I’m the idea guy,” said Crutchfield, who is commanding general Army Aviation Center of Excellence at Fort Rucker. “What I do is lay out ‘this is what I need,’ then I toss that grenade over the fence down there (gesturing toward another officer) and say go get it.”
Decisions will have to be resource informed in an environment of constrained resources.
“One of those things that’s helping us is the fact that we are in the highest demand,” he said. “When that friction happens between how much money you get and who wants that money, sometimes the fact that we are in high demand is the trump card that we can use.”
Army aviation won’t get everything it wants, he said. The branch has to make a convincing case for what it needs. “And it’s got to be operationally based. It’s got to be based in reality. It’s got to be based in what the Army needs and what our country needs.”
Crutchfield doesn’t know if there will be a new armed aerial scout. The Army is now is immersed in an Analysis of Alternatives (AoA) that will lay out capability gaps that need to be filled.
“Once we’ve laid out the gaps based on that AoA analysis–what are some of the ways we can fill those gaps, the courses of action the Army can take, to continue to modernize the fleet or continue to drive toward a new vertical lift airframe,” and then work out how to do that, he said.
With “ideas” in place, Program Executive Officer Aviation Maj. Gen. Tim Crosby takes over to provide the materiel solution, saying the challenge is: how does aviation remain as relevant as it is today.
“Honestly, as the PEO going into the building (the Pentagon), I’m not fighting day to day for resources.”
That’s because the aviation has earned credibility with the ground forces who rely on them.
“When we go into those discussions in the building (Pentagon), it’s those ground commanders who have recently been in the fight saying ‘don’t mess with aviation, they’re my critical enabler.’ And, frankly, that makes my job easy,” Crosby said.
There’s another part to the challenge: aviation has to execute programs, something it failed to do with the terminated Boeing [BA]-Sikorsky [UTX] RAH-66 Comanche helicopter.
“We’ve delivered on every program with the exception of armed scout,” Crosby said. “And it was the acquisition team that said stop, and brought about the AoA.”
Coupled with the budget challenges are the efficiency efforts mandated by the defense secretary and acquisition deputy. Aviation is making efforts to find ways to be more efficient to try and reinvest with the current budgets.
Efficiencies can come in aviation contracting, Crosby said. “Multiyear contracts are a huge savings to us as taxpayers and stewards of the American tax dollar.” The branch is also looking at reducing redundancies in organizations.
“Yes, aviation is expensive. I’m told about 20 percent of the procurement budget goes to PEO aviation,” Crosby said. “But, aviation is what’s delivering on the battlefield– that critical enabler.”
After the aviation portfolio review with the Army vice chief of staff, senior leaders did not recommend any reductions within Army aviation. Neither the numbers of aircraft being bought nor the numbers of systems to support aviation troops were cut.
That’s because “they know our credibility and they know what we bring to the fight,” he said. It does not mean we’re not going to have to tighten our belt and look for those efficiencies…We’re going to have to make smart, informed decisions and you may have to make adjustments to things.”
“But today I will tell you army aviation is strong, and strongly funded,” Crosby said.