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Army Hands $10B Helo Training to Civilian Contractor
M1 Support Services won a $10B Army contract to train 800-1,500 helicopter pilots yearly at Fort Rucker, replacing military instructors with civilians.
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The US Army will outsource the first stage of helicopter pilot training to a private company, breaking a decades-long tradition of senior military aviators teaching their junior counterparts.
M1 Support Services, a Texas-based aviation contractor, won the contract for the new "Flight School Next" program, the Army announced last week. The deal covers up to 26 years at Fort Rucker, Alabama, and is valued at as much as $10 billion. M1 will provide aircraft, simulators, classrooms, and flight training for 800 to 1,500 new pilots each year.
The shift comes as Army leaders question whether the current training model prepares pilots for advanced flight. The service now uses the UH-72 Lakota for basic training. Aviation leaders have said the aircraft is too easy for inexperienced students to master, according to Army Times reporting.
"Flight School Next delivers a critical improvement in our Initial Entry Rotary Wing Training model," Maj. Gen. Clair Gill, commanding general of the Army's Aviation Center of Excellence, said in a press release. "Simply put, it delivers new military helicopter pilots with far better foundational skills."