Learning the Lessons of Comanche

The US Army can now afford to rebuild its aviation assets, thanks to a bold decision by Donald Rumsfeld:

Two years after the Army canceled its high-tech, $42-billion RAH-66 Comanche attack helicopter, the service is putting together a new fleet of choppers that it claims are more affordable and better-suited to real-world missions than the Cold War Comanche ever was...In all, the Army will buy as many as 2,000 helicopters in the next 15 years...

In early 2004, Army Aviation's future appeared bleak. Operations in Iraq and Afghanistan had demonstrated helicopters' vulnerability to small arms and rocket-propelled grenades (more than 120 have been lost so far) and had proved that most Army aircraft were under-powered for hot weather and high-altitude flying. The aircraft fleet's average age was around 20 years and climbing. The rising cost of the Comanche threatened to bankrupt the force while delivering only a fraction of the new aircraft needed to recapitalize the Army's 4,000-strong rotary-wing fleet.

If only he had gone further and cancelled the Air Force's F-22 Raptor, which only 180 can be bought, as well as the Navy's CVN-21, which is rapidly bringing us to a 200 ship Navy.