IMH 2025: US Army considers ‘back-to-basics' helicopter pilot training

A US Army UH-72 Lakota, which the service says is too advanced to teach its student pilots elementary flying skills and is now looking at fielding a more basic solution. (US Army)

The US Army is considering a “back-to-basics” approach to helicopter training as it looks to improve the flying skills of its future pilots.

Speaking under the Chatham House Rule at the IQPC International Military Helicopter (IMH) 2025 conference in London, held from 25 to 27 February, an official said it is looking to potentially move away from the “complex” Airbus Helicopters UH-72A/B Lakota to a simpler type in an effort to improve the airmanship of its aviators.

“We know that we have the most complex [operational] aircraft in the world, but are we starting our training basis with complex [training] aircraft also? We are going to go back and take a look at the basic behaviours and skills that we are providing [our student pilots] as they come out of flight school, [and if they have the skills that are] going to save them when the complex systems stop working,” the official said on 25 February, noting that unofficial findings of some recent accident investigations had called into question the basic flying abilities of pilots that had been instructed on the Lakota.

The US Army has received close to 500 UH-72A and UH-72B Lakota-variant H145 (formerly EC145) helicopters in the pilot training role, replacing the Bell 206 JetRanger-derived TH-67 Creek that was retired in 2021. With the Creek being a simple single-engine helicopter with analogue avionics, the Lakota that superseded it is a much more advanced twin-engine helicopter with digital avionics. This difference, the official noted, is reflected in the training outputs that the US Army has been seeing.