Background The U.S. Army's
LHX program began in the early 1980s, proposing two helicopter designs with a high percentage of commonality of dynamic components. One was a light utility version ("LHX-U") for assault and tactical movement of troops and supplies, the other was a light scout/attack version ("LHX-SCAT") to complement the growing development of the
AH-64 Apache. As the program was developed, the light utility version was dropped and focus was placed on the light attack reconnaissance version, which eventually became the
RAH-66 Comanche. In 2004, the
U.S. Department of Defense and the US Army made the decision to terminate the RAH-66 program. As part of the termination, the Army retained the future years' funding intended for the Comanche. To replace the capability of the cancelled Comanche, the US Army planned several programs, including three new aircraft. The Army Staff decided that these three aircraft, the
Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter (ARH), the
Light Utility Helicopter (LUH), and the Future Cargo Aircraft (FCA) (later renamed
Joint Cargo Aircraft, or JCA), were to be existing, in-production commercial aircraft modified for Army service.
LUH Program and UH-145 The
LUH program was initiated in early 2004, with an initial requirement for 322 helicopters to conduct
homeland security, administrative, logistic, medical evacuation (MEDEVAC) and support of the army test and training centers missions. The LUH contract was released in July 2005. At least five proposals were received, including the
Bell 210 and
Bell 412,
MD Explorer, and
AgustaWestland AW139.
EADS North America (EADS NA) marketed the
UH-145 variant of the
EC 145 for the program. In June 2006, the U.S. Army announced that the UH-145 as the winner of the $3 billion LUH contract. In August, the UH-145 was designated
UH-72A by the
Department of Defense. The award was confirmed in October 2006 following protests from losing bidders. Despite a four-month delay due to the protests, the first UH-72 was delivered on time in December, when the name
Lakota was announced for the type, following the service's tradition of giving Native American names to its helicopters. , 2010 In August 2007, the UH-72A received full-rate production (FRP) approval to produce an initially planned fleet of 345 aircraft through 2017. The UH-72A is produced at
Airbus Helicopters's facility in
Columbus, Mississippi. Initial production was assembly of kits received from
Eurocopter Deutschland but full local production was reached in 2009. In December 2009, the service ordered 45 more UH-72As. The 100th Lakota was delivered in March 2010, and the 250th was delivered in April 2013. That month, the U.S. Army opted to halt procurement after 2014 due to budget cuts; at that point, a total of 312 Lakotas were on order by the service. In January 2014, Congress gave the Army $171 million to procure 20 additional UH-72As. The 300th UH-72 was delivered to the Army in May 2014. In May 2013, Congress questioned why the UH-72 had not been considered for the armed scout role. The
Army Chief of Staff General
Ray Odierno stated that the UH-72A was developed for domestic operations and is not considered to be operationally deployable to combat zones. The UH-72 is employed by the
US Army National Guard in a utility role in the US, releasing
UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters to deploy overseas. On 21 June 2013,
Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Frank Kendall stated in a letter to Congress that UH-72 combat modifications were "presently unaffordable". Fleet-wide combat modifications would reportedly cost $780 million and add of weight per helicopter; changes would include passive and active survivability systems, hardened engines and drivetrain, external lighting and communications upgrades.
Trainer use Since 2009 the U.S. Navy operates several UH-72As along with TH-67 Creeks at the Naval Test Pilot School; these replaced TH-6 Cayuses. In 2011, the Navy UH-72As were equipped with special avionics to support training for students. In December 2013, the US Army was considering retiring its OH-58 Kiowa fleet and transferring all Army National Guard and
US Army Reserve AH-64 Apaches to the active Army to serve as scout helicopters. With this plan all 100 active Army UH-72s along with 104 Army National Guard UH-72s would be transferred to use as training helicopters, replacing the
Bell TH-67 Creek at the
United States Army Aviation Center of Excellence at
Fort Rucker, Alabama. Some active Army
Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawks would be transferred to Army Reserve and Army National Guard units for homeland defense and disaster response missions. The proposals aim to retire older helicopters to substantially reduce costs while retaining crucial capabilities. With the prospect of most UH-72s being repurposed as training helicopters, the Army requested funds to buy 100 more Lakotas to add to the training fleet. The
FY2015 budget covered 55 helicopters, and the funds from
FY2016 were to be used to complete the purchase. On 4 September 2014, the Army issued a notice of intention to buy up to 155 UH-72s for training "on an other than full and open competitive basis".
AgustaWestland launched a judicial bid to have the acquisition declared unlawful, claiming that the EC145 did not offer the best value for money and that its "restricted flight maneuver envelope" impeded training. Airbus defended the Army's position, noting the EC145's prior selection, claiming AgustaWestland's cost figures were exaggerated and that it was already used for training.
Bell Helicopter also criticized the decision but took no legal actions. On 14 October 2014, a
Federal Claims Court issued a temporary order denying the US government's challenge of AgustaWestland's action until the Army issued a final justification and approval (J&A) to sole-source the procurement. The Army contended that the UH-72A came under the 2006 LUH contract, and so did not require a new J&A, effectively nullifying the challenge. The court sided with AgustaWestland, rejected the Army's J&A, and halted UH-72 procurement for training after finding that the Army had exaggerated the costs and time needed to acquire a training helicopter. The initial acquisition process was found negligent as it effectively tied the UH-72 to Airbus for its serviceable life. The court ordered the Army to either conduct a procurement for new training helicopters or stop buying UH-72 trainers. The Army appealed the decision. The lawsuit was overturned on appeal in favor of the US Army in 2018, and the Army retired its last TH-67 trainer in 2021. fleet The UH-72 has faced controversy as a trainer due to perceived problems with its use as an initial trainer. A study by the National Commission on the Future of the Army, a commission established by
Congress to make recommendations on force structure of the Army to the president, concluded that the UH-72 was cost-prohibitive as a training helicopter and there were cheaper options available to buy. It also showed that most instructor pilots disapproved of the UH-72, deeming it "too much aircraft for the mission", and unsuitable as an initial entry trainer. The UH-72 has also been criticized as unable to teach touchdown
auto-rotations, among other maneuvers. The
German Army had stopped using EC-135s for their initial trainer after Airbus advised them of it not being suitable for initial training. The
US Navy also rejected the UH-72 as a trainer for the same reason. By 2024, the US Army was looking at alternatives to the UH-72 as a trainer due to cost and complexity, only three years after it took over from the preceding TH-67 helicopter it replaced.
Proposed uses The Armed Scout 645 (EC645) was a proposed armed UH-72 variant for the US Army's
Armed Aerial Scout (AAS) program to replace the OH-58D. On 4 May 2009, EADS and
Lockheed Martin announced a teaming agreement for the 645. Three
AAS-72X demonstrators were built and began flight testing in late 2010. In September 2012, EADS began voluntary flight demonstrations of both an AAS-72X and an EC145 T2, reportedly meeting with performance requirements. Two versions were offered: the AAS-72X, an armed version of the UH-72; and the AAS-72X+, an armed militarized version of the
EC-145T2. In late 2013, the AAS program was terminated. In May 2012, the UH-72A was submitted in the
US Air Force's Common Vertical Life Support Platform (CVLSP) program for a
UH-1N Twin Huey replacement. As with the US Army, the UH-72A can operate in permissive environments, such as
ICBM site support and security under the
Air Force Global Strike Command and personnel transport in the National Capital Region by the
Air Mobility Command's
89th Airlift Wing. Advantages over the UH-1N include 30 percent more speed, range, and loiter time, enhanced reliability and
crashworthiness, night vision compatibility, modern avionics, and being cheaper to operate. In August 2013, the USAF said it planned to sustain the UH-1N for six to ten more years. In September 2013, acting
Air Force Secretary Eric Fanning received a letter from the CEO of EADS North America, arguing that to refit and maintain the Hueys costs more than to acquire and operate UH-72As; the letter also urged prompt action as Army orders were almost complete and production was winding down. The USAF said it had insufficient funding for such a procurement and can risk using Hueys for a while. EADS North America stated that the UH-72A "will lower the risk to the U.S. Air Force nuclear enterprise, and will save taxpayers the considerable cost of future recapitalization." Reportedly, buying UH-72As would cost as much as upgrading 62 Hueys, but long-term operating costs would be much lower. In April 2024, Airbus unveiled the UH-72B Unmanned Logistics Connector, an
unmanned version of the UH-72B. It is being proposed as an uncrewed logistics platform for the
United States Marine Corps (USMC) and
United States Army. Its proposal to the USMC addresses aerial logistics needs in the
Pacific relating to Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations. Its proposal to the Army addresses the need for a VTOL logistics aircraft for contested airspace, which came alongside the recent Army cancellation of the
Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft and ending of the
UH-60V production. A scale model of the helicopter was displayed at the Sea Air Space maritime exposition in April 2024.
Airbus US Space & Defense Business Development manager Carl Forsling stated that the UH-72B ULC could be fielded as early as the late 2020s as an affordable and low-risk option for the USMC. In April 2024, Craig Dupuy, Airbus' senior director of business development and strategy at Grand Prairie, stated: We’re pretty close to knowing if we’ll be on contract or not; It’s a middle-tier acquisition, so they’ve conveyed to industry that they have five years from initial award to put something in the field. We’re trying to determine right now, what is our future? What is our pathway? The biggest opportunity that we see right now for the future is getting into uncrewed logistics for the Army or the Marine Corps. There’s a lot of interest in the platform, just from a value [proposition] piece, a cabin size piece. That’s where we’re being pointed to go and look and say, is this a future path for this aircraft? The UH-72B ULC will be able to carry up to 4,000 lb of Joint Modular Intermodal Containers and
Naval Strike Missile containers, alongside other related cargo. ==Design==