US Army awards Airbus $140 million contract for 12 new UH-72B Lakota helicopters.

On August 14, 2026, the U.S. Army awarded Airbus Helicopters Inc. a $115.4 million firm-fixed-price contract for 10 UH-72B Lakota light utility helicopters, with options for two additional units bringing the total cumulative face value to $140.7 million. The order extends production of the five-bladed, Fenestron-equipped variant for Army National Guard operational units through 2030, delivering enhanced high-altitude hover performance and digital flight controls for domestic response missions. The contract action occurs as the service prepares to remove roughly 220 older UH-72A models from initial entry pilot training under the Flight School Next initiative.

The award provides $115,406,740 in initial obligations from Fiscal Year 2024 and 2025 procurement funds for 10 firm aircraft, equipped with jettisonable doors, air conditioning, inlet barrier filters, and twin Safran Arriel 2E engines yielding 1,788 horsepower. Deliveries from the Columbus, Mississippi facility are scheduled between 2027 and 2029, adding incremental capability to the U.S. Army's existing 479-aircraft Lakota inventory.

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The UH-72B Lakota is essentially a more modern UH-72A, with more powerful engines, a five-blade main rotor, an enclosed Fenestron tail rotor, greater payload capacity and a newer digital cockpit with a four-axis autopilot that can automate more of the flight. (Picture source: South Carolina Army National Guard)

On August 14, 2026, the U.S. Army awarded Airbus Helicopters Inc. a contract for 10 UH-72B Lakota light utility helicopters with options for two additional units, extending procurement of the five-bladed variant for Army National Guard operational units while the service prepares to remove roughly 220 UH-72As from Initial Entry Rotary Wing Training under Flight School Next. The firm-fixed-price action covers the helicopters (also known as MBB-BK 117 D3), jettisonable cockpit doors, air conditioning system installation, engine inlet barrier filters, and program management; $115,406,740 was obligated at award from FY2024 and FY2025 Aircraft Procurement, Army funds, and the cumulative contractual face value reaches $140,716,352. The contract carries an estimated completion date of December 31, 2030, while Airbus plans final assembly at Columbus, Mississippi, and deliveries from 2027 through 2029.

The order is limited in scale relative to a UH-72 Lakota inventory of 479 helicopters delivered since the program began in 2006, including 457 UH-72As and 18 UH-72Bs as of early 2025. Ten firm helicopters equal 2.09% of a 479-aircraft Lakota inventory, while a 12-aircraft total would equal 2.51%; even if every option is exercised, the purchase would increase the fleet by only one aircraft for every 39.9 Lakotas currently counted. Dividing the $115.406 million obligation by the 10 firm aircraft produces $11.541 million per helicopter, but that figure includes cockpit doors, air conditioning installation, engine inlet barrier filters, and program management costs and therefore does not represent a clean flyaway price for an individual UH-72B. The $140.716 million cumulative face value exceeds the initial obligation by $25.310 million, or 21.93%, indicating contractual value associated with elements not funded in the initial $115.406 million action.

The procurement also draws from two prior appropriations, FY2024 and FY2025, rather than being financed exclusively with FY2026 Aircraft Procurement, Army funding. Airbus plans to deliver the helicopters during 2027, 2028, and 2029, giving the manufacturer three calendar years to complete aircraft deliveries while contractual activity can continue for another year through December 31, 2030. At a simple average, 10 firm aircraft delivered over three years would equal 3.3 helicopters annually, or four aircraft annually if both options are exercised and the full 12-aircraft quantity is spread evenly across the same period. Such a rate is consistent with a limited continuation order inserted into an existing production line, not a rapid replacement of the several hundred UH-72As already operated by the Army.

Compared with the UH-72A, the maximum takeoff weight rises from 3,585 kg on the A-model to 3,800 kg on the B-model, an increase of 215 kg, equal to 6.0%. The B-model is 13.64 m long and 3.95 m high, with a listed 2+2+7 seating arrangement including seven crashworthy passenger seats. Published performance includes a 130-KTAS cruise speed, equal to 241 km/h, a 345 nm range, equal to 639 km, and 3 hours 39 minutes of endurance. Fuel consumption at the listed 130-KTAS cruise condition is 238 kg per hour, while hover-out-of-ground-effect performance at the full MTOW under ISA conditions reaches 9,000 ft. That hover figure is operationally significant for Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico National Guard units, which were among the first organizations receiving the B-model, because helicopter lift margin decreases as density altitude rises.

Four UH-72Bs can also be carried in a C-17, meaning one strategic airlift sortie can move the equivalent of one-third of the maximum quantity covered by the 2026 contract. The UH-72B therefore retains a small physical footprint and limited cabin characteristic of the Lakota while increasing allowable gross weight and improving high-altitude hover capability without shifting the helicopter into the UH-60's heavier payload and assault-transport category. The mechanical and avionics differences between the A-model and B-model are more substantial. The UH-72A uses a four-bladed main rotor, whereas the UH-72B uses a five-bladed bearingless rotor that supports the increase in maximum takeoff weight and removes several conventional rotor-head components; the B-model also eliminates the A-model's exposed tail rotor in favor of a Fenestron enclosed within the vertical tail structure.

Airbus associates the five-bladed system with roughly 150 kg of additional usable payload capacity and the elimination of the rotor vibration absorber, while the Fenestron reduces direct exposure of ground personnel to the tail-rotor blades and changes the anti-torque system's maintenance architecture. Engine power changes from two Safran Arriel 1E2 engines, rated at 738 shp each on the UH-72A, to two Arriel 2E engines, rated at 894 hp each on the underlying H145 D3 configuration, increasing combined takeoff output from 1,476 shp to 1,788 hp, a nominal difference of more than 300 hp. The B-model adds dual FADEC, which electronically manages engine operation and start sequencing and provides hot-start protection, reducing the manual engine management burden imposed on pilots.

Its Helionix cockpit replaces the A-model's more fragmented instrument layout with three multifunction displays, twin Garmin GTN-750 units and a four-axis autopilot capable of automated takeoff, flight envelope protection and fully coupled approaches to hover. The result is more gross weight, more available engine power, five rather than four main-rotor blades, a ducted tail rotor, digital engine control and automated hover-related flight functions, all of which are directly relevant to low-speed National Guard operations in constrained terrain. The scale of the existing fleet explains why relatively small UH-72B purchases can remain useful without requiring wholesale replacement of the UH-72A. The US Army originally initiated the Light Utility Helicopter (LUH) requirement in 2004 for 322 helicopters intended for homeland security, administrative transport, logistics, MEDEVAC, and support to test and training organizations, before approving a 345-aircraft production plan in 2007.

Procurement subsequently expanded well beyond that figure as the Lakota took on US Army National Guard and training roles, and the U.S. Army now counts 479 aircraft, making the UH-72 its third-largest rotorcraft fleet. More than 480 Lakotas have been delivered since December 2006, representing more than $4 billion in Army investment, while the aircraft operate across 49 states and territories. The broader fleet has accumulated more than 1.7 million flight hours across training, search and rescue, reconnaissance, MEDEVAC, disaster response, firefighting, homeland defense, drug interdiction, command-and-control, and VIP transport. A particularly useful utilization measure comes from Southwest border operations in 2023, where 24 National Guard Lakotas accumulated 14,000 flight hours.

That equals 583.3 hours per helicopter if the workload is divided evenly, 48.6 hours per aircraft per month, and 11.2 hours per week across the full year. For a state-based light utility fleet, those figures indicate sustained operational use rather than occasional contingency flying. The US Army's force-structure logic is correspondingly straightforward: Lakotas perform large quantities of missions requiring neither the UH-60's larger cabin nor its combat equipment, reducing the number of Black Hawk hours consumed by border surveillance, medical transport, disaster relief, local search-and-rescue, and administrative movement. Hurricane Helene demonstrated the same division of labor under emergency conditions in September and October 2024. More than 2,000 landslides occurred in western North Carolina after Helene crossed the region, destroying or blocking roads and bridges and leaving numerous communities inaccessible by ground.

Chief Warrant Officer 2 Kevin Deharo of Detachment 1, Bravo Company, 2-151st Aviation Regiment, North Carolina Army National Guard, flew nearly 40 hours in five days with the North Carolina Helicopter Aquatic Rescue Team, or NCHART, equivalent to nearly eight flying hours per day before mission planning, refueling, crew preparation, and ground activity are included. NCHART conducted 540 aerial rescues during the response, including 196 hoist rescues, meaning 36.3% of those rescues required extraction without a conventional landing. A South Carolina National Guard Lakota crew led by Chief Warrant Officer 3 John Seeger conducted another 57 rescues, including 12 animals, while transporting more than 1,000 kg of supplies. Some landing zones measured only 45 × 45 ft, just 0.24 ft longer in one dimension than the UH-72B's overall length.

In practical terms, that left less than three inches between the numerical aircraft length and the nominal dimension of the landing area before rotor-disc clearance, obstacles, and approach geometry were considered. Such operations explain why the B-model's four-axis autopilot, fully coupled hover approaches, additional power, 9,000-ft HOGE figure, and compact footprint matter more to many Guard missions than speed or weapons capacity. A helicopter conducting 57 individual rescues and moving one metric ton of supplies through landing zones comparable in size to its own fuselage length is being used primarily as a precision-access aircraft, not as a substitute for a medium-lift troop carrier. The US Army can also buy such a small increment without creating a new industrial or sustainment burden because the Lakota has been produced in the United States for two decades.

The Army selected the EC145-derived UH-145 in June 2006, redesignated it UH-72A in August 2006, and received the first Lakota in December 2006. Production reached the 100th Lakota in March 2010, 250 aircraft in April 2013, 300 in May 2014, and 400 by 2017, while cumulative deliveries subsequently exceeded 480. Columbus, Mississippi, initially assembled imported kits but reached full local production by 2009, and the facility has assembled or delivered more than 1,800 Airbus helicopters since opening in 2003. The current Columbus workforce supporting helicopter assembly numbers nearly 250 employees, with close to 30% identified as military veterans. The production line is only one part of the support structure.

Airbus' Grand Prairie, Texas, campus provides engineering, maintenance, spare parts, fleet support, and training and includes an 18,500-sq-ft simulation center supporting the H145 and EC145 families, while the DFW Airport distribution center contains 80,000 sq ft of logistics space, operates 24/7, employs roughly 55 personnel, and handles 316,000 transactions annually. The Army is consequently extending a mature production and sustainment chain rather than paying to establish tooling, simulators, maintenance training, parts distribution, and engineering support for a new type. The most consequential numerical issue is instead the future of the roughly 220 UH-72As used for Initial Entry Rotary Wing Training. The US Army began repurposing the UH-72A for that mission in 2015 and made the Lakota its primary aviation-school trainer in 2020 as it completed the replacement of the TH-67 Creek.

The training system now handles roughly 1,400 students annually and more than 125,000 flight hours each year, while cumulative activity exceeds 800,000 training hours and 8,000 students. On a 220-aircraft basis, 125,000 annual hours equate to 568 flight hours per helicopter per year, 47.3 hours per month, and 10.9 hours per week if activity is evenly distributed. At 1,400 students annually, the training fleet contains one UH-72A for every 6.36 students entering the system each year, while 125,000 annual flight hours equal 89.3 aircraft flight hours per student across the overall training enterprise.

Flight School Next will replace the Lakota in initial training with the Robinson R66 through the M1 Services arrangement, meaning the Army is ending the principal mission of a roughly 220-aircraft subfleet while ordering only 10 firm new UH-72Bs, or at most 12. Whether those helicopters remain in Army service, move to National Guard operational units, support Combat Training Centers or other organizations, enter storage, are transferred, or are retired will therefore influence future UH-72B procurement more strongly than the current 10-aircraft lot itself. The August 2026 award extends the B-model fleet, but Flight School Next will determine whether the Army ultimately needs tens of additional UH-72Bs or can satisfy a substantial share of future light-utility requirements by reallocating aircraft it already owns.

Written by Jérôme Brahy

Jérôme Brahy is a defense analyst and documentalist at Army Recognition. He specializes in naval modernization, aviation, drones, armored vehicles, and artillery, with a focus on strategic developments in the United States, China, Ukraine, Russia, Türkiye, and Belgium. His analyses go beyond the facts, providing context, identifying key actors, and explaining why defense news matters on a global scale.

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