In a move that elected officials say could keep the assembly line at the Boeing plant in Ridley Park, Pennsylvania, busy for 20 years, the U.S. Army has canceled a proposed attack helicopter by rivals Lockheed Sikorsky and Bell Textron and transferred funds to upgrade Boeing’s Chinook helicopters and smarter drones.
The Army said Thursday that it is discontinuing work on the Future Attack and Reconnaissance Aircraft — often called scout helicopters — and shifting funds to speed a long-delayed upgrade of up to 425 Boeing Chinook CH-47s. It also will begin building new attack helicopters by 2030, along with next-generation unmanned aircraft.
The Army cited “lessons learned and a sober assessment” of recent battlefields in Ukraine and elsewhere, where “agile” drone aircraft have been used to combat conventional forces from far away at low cost.
The move reverses a Pentagon decision in 2019 that slowed planned Chinook upgrades. At the time, military leaders said they expected to need fewer Chinooks, which haul tanks and other heavy equipment into battle zones, or other equipment used in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Instead, the focus would be on long-range artillery, space and software weapons, and other programs useful against Russia or China.
That decision threatened a shutdown of the Chinook assembly line at the 4,000-worker plant, and its suppliers in the region. In response, the region’s congressional delegation…