After The US Army 'Junked' Its Scout Helicopter, They Now Realise That They Need One

OH-58D Kiowa Warriors with the 1st Squadron, 17th Cavalry Regiment, 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade, conduct their final flight on April 15th, 2016. US Army

Tyler Rogoway, The Drive: US Army Says It Badly Needs A Scout Helicopter After Junking The Ones It Had


Just as predicted, the hole left by the humble OH-58D Kiowa Warrior is gaping, and now the Army wants to fill it as soon as it can.

The US Army has executed its grand rotary-wing aviation restructuring plan that saw the ousting of hundreds of Bell JetRanger derivatives from service—653 airframes in total. These included the Army's entire fleet of 187 TH-67 Creek primary trainers and the roughly 340 OH-58D Kiowa Warrior armed reconnaissance/armed scout helicopters that performed so brilliantly in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now, just months after the final Kiowa Warriors were officially retired, the US Army is whining about how badly they need...an armed scout helicopter.

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WNU Editor: Why am I not surprised.