The National Guard continues to be the target of doing more with less. While there is an effort to remove the Apaches from the National Guard, something that is adamantly opposed by the National Guard and this Association, there is also the call to use the National Guard more, improve flexibility in reach-back capability, and relieve stress on the Active Duty Army. If you remove our combat aviation capability, that eliminates the use of the National Guard in that role, eliminates any reach-back capability, and increases the stress on the Active Duty Army. Unless, of course, the purpose is to take combat roles away from the National Guard. Remember this dialog?
Repost from NPR: http://www.npr.org/2014/04/22/305887787/army-vs-national-guard-who-gets-those-apache-helicopters
“The debate is about how to make these cuts in the Army, and in particular how to allocate cuts between the active component and the reserve component,” says Todd Harrison with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. “I would think a Black Hawk helicopter is going to be far more useful in a natural disaster situation than Apache attack helicopters,” he says.
Repost from Watertown Daily Times: http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/news03/army-officials-tell-stefanik-fort-drum-will-receive-apache-helicopters-on-schedule-video-20160227&
Fort Drum will receive a set of 24 Apache helicopters from the National Guard this summer, Army officials confirmed Friday. “We will execute those transfers on time and on schedule,” said Gen. Daniel B. Allyn, Army Vice Chief of Staff. “The 10th Combat Aviation Brigade will receive its Apaches on schedule,”
Repost from DefenseNews: http://www.defensenews.com/story/defense/land/army-aviation/2015/01/29/army-aviation-restructure-initiative-ausa/22525965/
Key US Army aviation modernization plans all hinge on the service’s cost-cutting Aviation Restructure Initiative (ARI), senior service officials said on Thursday. The plan, which has stirred controversy with National Guard advocates, is unpalatable but necessary in light of sequestration budget cuts, said Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Daniel Allyn, speaking at an Association of of the US Army aviation event.
Repost from Federal News Radio: http://federalnewsradio.com/army/2016/02/army-wants-guard-reserve-deployments-2017/
Citing ongoing readiness strains within its active duty force, the Army is asking Congress for permission for a significant uptick in its use of National Guard and Army Reserve forces to handle missions in combatant commands throughout the world. “We need more flexible access to the reserve component, specifically for emerging missions,” Gen. Daniel Allyn, the Army’s vice chief of staff, told the House Armed Services Committee Friday. “Where the stress is really starting to press down on our active formations is in meeting emerging requirements where we have time constraints that don’t let us prepare and deploy a reserve component unit to meet the requirement.