Should the United States Army Procure the Total Quantity of Black Helicopters it Requires

The Bottom-Up Review established the Army force structure requirement to be four corps and fifteen divisions. As a result of the Bottom-Up Review, procurement of Black Hawk helicopters was cancelled at the end of fiscal year 1996. This leaves the Army with a dilemma of whether to pursue programming procurements of the Black Hawk in the fiscal year 1996-2001 Program Objective Memorandum POM or to retain a mixed fleet of Black Hawk and UH-1H helicopters. This thesis does a comparative analysis of the Black Hawk and UH-1H to determine capabilities and cost differences that exist, and provides an analysis of their ability to perform Army utility helicopter doctrinal mission requirements. The results of the analysis suggest that based on current doctrinal requirements and force structure levels, the Army should continue to procure the Black Hawk helicopters needed to met the requirement of 2195 Black Hawks determined by the Bottom-Up Review. Army force structure, Aviation restructure initiative, Bottom- Up review, The Army plan, Army aviation modernization, Plan