Beating the Air Into Submission: Investing in Vertical Lift Modernization.

• Author: Coll, Gabriel
• Position: FURTHER READING

This Center for Strategic and International Studies brief looks at how far the military has come in modernizing its rotary wing aircraft fleets over the past three decades, which isn't very far at all, it turns out.

The Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps collectively have spent $113 billion over the past decade on vertical lift modernization and much of it has gone into research and development. All that R&D investment hasn't led to "transformational change," the authors argue.

Even though the Army by far has the largest helicopter fleet, the Navy has outspent it modernizing its aircraft and those of the Marine Corps. These investments have come as upgrades as there has not been a new helicopter...