Aflurry of activity is about to hit the Army and contractors hop-ing to profit from the demise of the RAH-66 Comanche, with awards for two new helicopters and a fleet of fixed-wing transport aircraft in the balance. This month, the Army hopes to sign off on requirements-or initial capability documents, in new Pentagon parlance-for its light utility (LUH) and light armed reconnaissance helicopters (LARH). It plans to buy 303 of the former and 368 of the latter. Similar paperwork for the first 25 of a much larger buy of fixed-wing aircraft was approved last month by the Army, although the Pentagon won't review the matter until June. The Army also is releasing a draft request-for-proposals for its Extended-Range, Multi-Purpose unmanned aircraft, says Maj. Gen. Joseph Bergantz, program executive officer for aviation. Skeptics of the Army plan question whether the nearly $15 billion saved from killing Comanche will be enough to buy all those aircraft and overhaul existing ones as planned.
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