The Army is refining an initial capabilities document for a new fixed-wing utility aircraft that is designed to replace more than 112 airframes with a common platform. The new platform should be able to perform a range of key mission sets and services.

"We manage 73 different series of aircraft and more than 40 different designs," said Col. Brian Tachias, project manager, fixed-wing, Program Executive Office Aviation. "A common cockpit and platform will reduce the amount of resources needed to train pilots and sustain the aircraft. Moving to one common fleet will reduce the manpower needed and allow us to gain efficiencies by reducing the number of contracts."

PM Fixed-Wing, established in October of last year, was stood up to create a central hub to manage the Army's fleet of fixed-wing aircraft. As many as 37 different fixed-wing aircraft programs are now consolidated and centrally managed under the purview of the project office.

The Army has a current fleet of approximately 377 fixed-wing aircraft spanning a range of functions. Plans to develop a new Fixed-Wing Utility Aircraft emerged out of a fleet-wide Army assessment of fixed-wing aircraft conducted by PM Fixed-Wing and the TRADOC Capability Manager-Lift, Tachias added.

Alongside the effort to build a new Fixed-Wing Utility Aircraft, PM Fixed-Wing will also manage a wide range of Army aircraft such as the now-in-development Enhanced Medium Altitude Reconnaissance and Surveillance Systems, which are King Air 350 planes engineered with high-tech cameras, sensors, data link, and surveillance equipment able to gather and distribute key, combat-relevant information. Four EMARSS aircraft are slated to deploy to Afghanistan as part of a forward operational assessment.

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