WASHINGTON — US Army Gen. Mark Milley, the Obama administration's nominee for the service's top post, defended the service's controversial aviation restructure plan at a confirmation hearing Tuesday.

During his Senate Armed Services Committee appearance, Milley sought to placate opponents of the plan, but did not back off from the strategy first offered by Gen. Ray Odierno, whom Milley would replace.

The Army National Guard has some "good points," in its concerns with the plan, Milley said, in which the active Army would take the Guard's fleet of AH-64 Apaches in exchange for older UH-60 Black Hawks. These concerns include taking  "combat capabilities away from [the Guard]; they won't be able to be the strategic and operational reserve."

The Aviation Restructure Initiative (ARI), Milley said, would save $1 billion per year for a total of $12 billion — a necessary move in the midst of the service's sequestration-driven budget crunch. Milley also called it "a readiness issue," saying a halt to the plan would rob the 1st Infantry Division, the 10th Mountain Division and 25th Infantry Division of armed reconnaissance capability.

"We are going to blind three out of the 10 active-duty division commanders with inability to be able to see a battlefield," Milley said.

The remarks come as a congressional Commission on the Future of the Army is expected to make recommendations on ARI and larger questions about the roles of the active side, Guard and Reserve.

The commission was mandated by the fiscal 2015 National Defense Authorization Act to study the Army's structure, size, force mix and how they all should be modified to fit the Army's missions and available resources.

ARI would eliminate the OH-58 Kiowa Warrior and use the Apache to fill the Kiowa's reconnaissance and scout role. The Army would also close three of its 13 combat aviation brigades.

The commission's report to Congress is due in February 2016, and therefore is unlikely to influence the budget immediately.

The 2015 National Defense Authorization Act already provided the service with room to inactivate and transfer OH-58Ds, and swap its training aircraft from the TH-67 Creek to the UH-72A Lakota. The law bars the Apache transfers in fiscal 2015, allowing as many as 48 aircraft to be moved the following year, and it calls for a National Commission on the Future Structure of the Army to evaluate the ARI and the overall balance among active, Guard and reserve forces — reporting back by Feb. 1, 2016.

Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., told Milley he was worried the Army would be making "irreversible" changes to the Guard ahead of the commission's report, as elements of ARI are already underway. Wicker reflected much of the discontent with the Army plan, saying Mississippi's Guard units would suffer, as would the seamless operation of the active Army and Guard since the Sept. 11 attacks.

When Wicker asked if Milley supported a halt to all Apache transfers until the commission reports, Milley replied that — despite language in the proposed 2016 NDAA that bars Apache transfers — the Army is in compliance with the current law and "executing their last written order."

Milley left an opening, however, saying that although he favors the transfer, he would "await the results of the commission."

"I am going to pay attention to their recommendations very closely, I'll remain continually engaged with the Guard and try to do the right thing for the total Army," he said.

Milley said he and Gen. Frank Grass, chief of the National Guard Bureau, need "to patch up whatever issues there are," and acknowledged the active Army's dependence on the Guard and reserve for sustained operations.

"From a personal perspective I think there's one Army, that's it. We all wear the same uniform, and it says 'United States Army' on our chest," Milley said.

Looming in the background, and unmentioned at Tuesday's hearing, are the stakes for industry. The Army's plan has ripples for Black Hawk-maker Sikorsky Aircraft, which, it was announced Monday, would be purchased by Lockheed Martin from United Technologies Corp. for $9 billion in cash.

As UTC was in the midst of soliciting bids for a potential sale, the Army informed Sikorsky that if the Army was unable to acquire the Guard's Apaches, the service would have to raid its Black Hawk accounts to buy the Apaches it wants. This rankled some members of Congress, said one Hill source.

"The Army leaked this to Sikorsky who of course became very worried because the multiyear contracts on Black Hawk are a huge revenue stream for them," the Hill source said. "The Army basically leaked an idea to Sikorsky ... to strong-arm Sikorsky into lobbying for the Army's ARI because they feared their potential asking price would tank if potential buyers thought the ... contract was in danger."

This was not the first time Army leaders have said Army aviation programs rely on ARI. In February, Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Daniel Allyn and Maj. Gen. Mike Lundy, commander of the Army Aviation Center of Excellence at Fort Rucker, Alabama, said key US Army aviation modernization plans — Future Vertical Lift, the Improved Engine Turbine program and digital cockpit upgrades for Black Hawks — hinge on ARI.

The Army's position has been that its restructure is the best option amid shrinking budgets, particularly for Army aviation, and without permission to migrate Apaches the service would have no choice than to buy the attack helicopters at $40 million per copy.

Lawmakers have been pushing back against plans to transfer Apaches from the Army National Guard. Dozens of House lawmakers signed a July 9 letter asking the heads of the authorization and appropriation committees to halt the transfers.

Sikorsky CEO Robert Leduc, in a July 8 letter to Guard adjutant generals, asked their support in seeking a compromise plan.

According to Leduc's letter, Army acquisition officials told the company that delaying Apache turn-ins would result in the Black Hawk program becoming "a principal bill payer" to help fund a $4.6 billion procurement of up to 115 new Apaches. The company was also told, he said, the Army would forgo its Multi-Year 9, or MYIX, contract for Black Hawks in 2017 and beyond to cut its Black Hawk buy from 72 to 18 — a drop that contrasts with Sikorsky's production of 90 Black Hawks per year for the last five years.

According to Leduc, such a move would lead to Black Hawk production breaks of more than a year, a doubling of the helicopter's unit cost and delays in both fielding of modern Black Hawk helicopters to the Guard and retiring its "A" Models. This would yield a "potential loss of thousands of jobs and critical impact to our manufacturing capability and the industrial base," the letter said.

Multiyear contracts are thought to provide the Army with cost savings while stabilizing the industrial base. The Army's multiyear contract for remanufactured Apaches and was in Army-wide staffing, expected to go to principal staffing in early August. MYIX is expected to reach principal staffing in mid-August. If approved, both would serve for fiscal 2017 through 2021.

Email: jgould@defensenews.com

Twitter: @reporterjoe

Joe Gould was the senior Pentagon reporter for Defense News, covering the intersection of national security policy, politics and the defense industry. He had previously served as Congress reporter.

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