USSOCOM to fly Black Hawks into the 2050s due to FARA cancellation: official
NewsMay 08, 2024
SOF WEEK 2024 -- TAMPA, Florida. The U.S. Army's cancellation of the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) program in February will force the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment to make some adjustments to its future aviation plan, including having Black Hawks continue flying into the 2050s, the head of the rotary wing program executive office at U.S. Special Operations Command said at SOF Week.
The cancellation of FARA "changed our equation," Steven A. Smith said, "because that was going to become the platform that would take the role of the AH-6 ... and so now we don't have that solution available. So we're going to sustain those aircraft for a long time."
As a consequence to the shakeup, some Black Hawks will need to be extended into the 2050s, he said. Officials will need to figure out how to modify those aircraft accordingly.
"That means they're going to have multiple modifications to that platform in the future," he said.
Additionally, the cancellation of FARA leaves a capability gap in the future as officials must go back to the drawing board on the replacement for the AH-6. On a slide accompanying his presentation, Smith listed an "H-6-X" aircraft. "That's not experimental," he said. "There's nothing there yet."
He said they are monitoring some "commercial developments," but nothing is solid just yet, and invited the industry to present their own solutions. "If anybody's got other ideas ... come see us and talk to us," he said.
