Lead Analysis / Acquisition
MV-75 Development Continues. Production Funding Remains Unsettled.
A $200 million reprogramming keeps development moving into FY2027. The Army’s request for first-lot long-lead funding still faces congressional action.
Read AnalysisPlatform Evolution
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X2 AFTER FARA
01 / COMPOUND ROTORCRAFT
From the XH-59A to the S-97 Raider, Sikorsky's X2 technology has matured across five decades. NATO's next rotorcraft requirement puts the architecture's central tradeoff in view.
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ARMED BLACK HAWK
02 / ARMED UTILITY
The Armed Black Hawk pushes a proven utility platform into armed escort and close support roles without giving up its lift mission.
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UH-60MX BLACK HAWK
03 / AUTONOMY READY
The UH-60MX pairs fly-by-wire controls with Sikorsky's MATRIX system, turning a fielded utility aircraft into a testbed for manned, remote, and autonomous operations.
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Apache launched effects
04 / EXTENDED REACH
The Apache extends its engagement envelope through launched effects, pairing its sensor and targeting systems with loitering munitions to strike beyond direct fire range.
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CH-47F CHINOOK
05 / HEAVY LIFT
Six decades of dominance, zero plans to retire. The Block II pushes the legendary tandem-rotor further with more lift, smarter systems, same battlefield indispensability.
LINEAGE
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FROM HUEY TO BLACK HAWK
AIR MOBILITY / 1959–2026
The Army wrote Black Hawk's requirements from the Huey's own combat record years before a UH-60 reached a unit. The harder test was retiring a fleet that kept finding new missions for another three decades.
IN DEVELOPMENT
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![AH-1 Cobra attack helicopter flying over a field during a Vietnam-era Army operation.]()
The Snake's Decade
ATTACK AVIATION / 1965–2026
A Vietnam gunship became the Army's tank killer a decade before its replacement reached a unit, and remained in the force for nearly thirteen more years alongside it. What that overlap bought, and what it left uncovered.
Clean-Sheet VTOL
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THUNDER
01 / ATTACK AVIATION
Unveiled at Farnborough 2026, Anduril x Archer’s Thunder brings a new autonomous rotorcraft into the attack aviation conversation.
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NOMAD
02 / EXPEDITIONARY AVIATION
Nomad tests whether Sikorsky can scale a rotor-blown-wing aircraft family while MATRIX secures its place across the wider autonomous aviation market.
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X-76
03 / SPECIAL OPERATIONS
Folding the rotors in flight is the bet behind Bell’s X-76, a tiltrotor meant to reach jet speed without giving up the landing zone.
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X-BAT
04 / MARITIME STRIKE
An uncrewed jet that lands on its tail, X-BAT is designed to strike from ships and austere sites with no runway to come home to.
Latest Developments
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BOEING NOW HAS F/A-XX AND F-47
NAVAL AVIATION / ACQUISITION
September 29, 2026 · 7 min readThe Pentagon tried to slow the Navy's next fighter to protect F-47. Congress forced it forward, and Boeing now holds both programs as the Navy begins a long handover from the Super Hornet.
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THE BLACK HAWK'S THREE-WAY COLLISION
FORCE MODERNIZATION August 22, 2026 · 7 min read
The Army is keeping Black Hawks in production while accelerating MV-75 and modernizing the fleet already in service. Three timelines are converging, and the risk sits in how they meet.
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THE F-47 GAMBLE
DEFENSE POLICY May 28, 2026 · 5 min read
Designing a sixth-generation fighter around autonomous wingmen reveals the Air Force's central gamble. CCAs add mass, but they also make the network one of the most decisive pieces of the battlespace.
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Monuments or Machines: Inside the Maverick Act
DEFENSE POLICY May 9, 2026 · 8 min read
For twenty years, the Pentagon shredded every F-14 Tomcat it could find. Now Congress wants three back and the two versions of that bill point toward completely different outcomes.
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A-10 EXTENSION TO 2030
FORCE STRUCTURE April 21, 2026 · 6 min read
Extending the A-10 Thunderbolt II to 2030 reveals a force caught between two eras. As the Air Force pushes toward high-end stealth and stand-off strike, recent operations in the Middle East have shown that battlefield presence and low-cost persistence still matter.
