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THE ISSUE
The U.S. military’s vertical lift fleet of helicopters and tiltrotors is aging. With the exception of V-22 Osprey, no completely new
aircraft designs have been introduced since the 1980s. Even the V-22 made its first test flight back in the 1980s. And the U.S.
Army, which has the largest helicopter fleet and traditionally takes the lead on vertical lift innovation, has not made substantial
investments in Research & Development since the cancellation of RAH-66 Comanche.
Today, there are ambitious plans to modernize the entire vertical lift fleet. However, much of the investment path ahead remains
unclear. To make informed plans about the future, it is important first to understand how the United States arrived at its current
state through past investments.
$6.00B
constant fy19 dollars
$4.00B
Procurement
RDT&E
$2.00B
$0.00B
10 12 14 16 18 10 12 14 16 18 10 12 14 16 18
fiscal year
Despite this considerable investment, annual spending expenditures, the Army made up 45.2 percent of spending,
mostly declined, falling in 7 of these 10 years. This resulted while the Navy and Air Force accounted for 49.4 percent
in an overall reduction of more than 40 percent. Over and 5.4 percent, respectively. However, in terms of aircraft
the entire period, procurement made up 84.5 percent numbers, the Army makes up roughly 70.6 percent of the
of spending, but the balance between procurement and overall fleet, while the Navy and Air Force account for 24.8
RDT&E shifted. Procurement dropped by about 50 percent, percent and 4.6 percent, respectively. By the measure of
while RDT&E increased by about 9.5 percent.6 In 2018, annual spending per aircraft, the Army ranked third behind
procurement made up only 72.1 percent of spending. This both the Navy and Air Force: 1) Navy/USMC ($4.05M/
is a sharp contrast with overall defense, where research aircraft); 2) Air Force ($2.36M/aircraft) 3) Army ($1.30M/
and development (R&D) generally declined as a share of aircraft). As the largest customer for vertical lift, the Army
contract obligations.7 However, the shift towards R&D is is very influential in shaping the market, but the limited
largely the result of declining procurement. This suggests nature of Army investments has restrained how aggressively
less about the U.S. military being poised to make a industry pursues improvements in vertical lift.
generational leap forward in vertical lift than it does about
TRENDS IN VERTICAL LIFT PROCUREMENT
the vagaries of sequestration and the Budget Control Act.
In terms of overall procurement, the Army and Navy were
IMPLICATIONS OF SERVICE INVESTMENT roughly on par: 1) Army: $46.2 billion (48.5 percent) 2)
APPROACHES Navy: $44.9 billion (47.1 percent) 3) Air Force: $4.3 billion
Despite having, by far, the largest vertical lift fleet, the (4.5 percent). Army actually led in procurement spending
Army ranked second in modernization spending each year, for six of the past 10 years. Over the past decade, the Army
behind the Navy. Modernization of Marine Corps vertical and Navy followed the same, sharp downward trend (over
lift is included in the Navy’s portfolio. In terms of overall $2.4 billion each) while the Air Force declined more slowly.
Osprey 23.53bn
Apache 13.80bn
Chinook 12.24bn
Cobra/Viper 8.62bn
Chart 3: Top Research, Development, Test & Evaluation Spending Categories, 2009 — 2018 (over $1B)12
Osprey 1.12bn
Army: green; Navy and/or Air Force: purple
CSIS BRIEFS are produced by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a private, tax-exempt institution
focusing on international public policy issues. Its research is nonpartisan and nonproprietary. CSIS does not take specific
policy positions. Accordingly, all views, positions, and conclusions expressed in this publication should be understood to be
solely those of the author(s). © 2019 by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. All rights reserved.
Cover Photo: Department of Defense
CSIS BRIEFS | WWW.CSIS.ORG | 4
ENDNOTES
1. “Chapter Three: North America,” The Military Balance 118, Issue 1 (Feb-
ruary 2018): 27-64, DOI: 10.1080/04597222.2018.1416979; tiltrotors +
helicopters = 5168; manned combat aircraft = 5594
2. David Sim and Eve Watling, “These are the World’s Largest Air Forces”,
June 15, 2018, Newsweek, https://www.newsweek.com/these-are-worlds-
largest-air-forces-979134?page=9: United States total helicopter strength:
5,758; Russia total aircraft strength: 3,914.
3. “Chapter Three: North America”; U.S. Army total helicopter strength:
3,920.
4. CSIS analysis; Department of Defense Budget Estimates, Justification
Books, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) / CFO,
https://comptroller.defense.gov/Budget-Materials/, President’s Budget
Requests FY2011 - FY2019.
5. CSIS analysis; Department of Defense Budget Estimates.
6. Ibid.; these numbers for Procurement and RDT&E are based on the aver-
age annual rate of change.
7. Rhys McCormick, Samantha Cohen, and Greg Sanders, “Acquisition
Trends 2018: Defense Contract Spending Bounces Back,” CSIS, September
13, 2018, https://www.csis.org/analysis/acquisition-trends-2018-de-
fense-contract-spending-bounces-back-executive-summary.
8. Dan Parsons, “Military Helicopter Fleets Showing Their Age,” National
Defense Magazine, February 1, 2012, http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.
org/articles/2012/1/31/2012february-military-helicopter-fleets-show-
ing-their-age.
9. CSIS analysis; Department of Defense Budget Estimates.
10. Parsons, “Military Helicopter Fleets Showing Their Age.”
11. Procurement and RDT&E categories include: Osprey, Black Hawk,
Apache, Sea Hawk, Chinook, Cobra/Viper, Sea Stallion/King Stallion, Avia-
tion - General, Marine One (Superhawk), Light Utility Helicopter, Combat
Rescue Helicopter, Huey/Iroquois, Kiowa (Warrior), Engines, Huey/Iroquois
Replacement, Pave Hawk, Sea Knight, Common Vertical Lift Support Plat-
form (CVLSP), (U)MH-XX.
12. Procurement and RDT&E categories include: Osprey, Black Hawk,
Apache, Sea Hawk, Chinook, Cobra/Viper, Sea Stallion/King Stallion, Avia-
tion - General, Marine One (Superhawk), Light Utility Helicopter, Combat
Rescue Helicopter, Huey/Iroquois, Kiowa (Warrior), Engines, Huey/Iroquois
Replacement, Pave Hawk, Sea Knight, Common Vertical Lift Support Plat-
form (CVLSP), (U)MH-XX.