The National Commission on the Future of the Army will soon focus on the issue of where to put the Army’s AH-64 Apache helicopters and one commissioner hopes it will find a “blended capability” solution, according to a report this week by Inside Defense.
The publication Monday quoted comments made at the commission’s public meeting last week in Arlington, Va., by Robert Hale , a former Pentagon comptroller who leads the commission’s subcommittee on aviation. The issue is the Army’s Aviation Restructure Initiative which would remove Apaches from the Army National Guard as a cost-cutting measure. The National Guard Bureau has offered an alternative.
The commission must weigh the plans based on current and future resources. Hale said both plans were well-crafted and scored well against those criteria.
He added, “We’re also looking at other options. Our challenge is to find an option that provides a blended capability across these various criteria, and it will be a challenge.”
Retired Gen. Carter Ham, the commission chairman, said the panel would run an analytic exercise next month that will crunch the numbers for the Army plan, the bureau plan and others. The results will help the commission make its recommendation, which is due to Congress by Feb. 1, 2016.
Ham said the issue is “very complex” and said the commission would do its best to articulate the reasons for whatever recommendation it makes. He said he realizes that any recommendation will disappoint some people.