US Army Awards $10 Billion Pilot Training Contract

The U.S. Army has awarded the Flight School Next contract to M1 Support Services L.P., Denton, Texas, to modernize how it trains future rotary-wing aviators at Fort Rucker, Alabama.

The program will provide initial entry rotary-wing training for 800 to 1,500 Army pilots annually using commercially available services and equipment. The contract has a combined value of $10 billion and a potential period of performance of up to 26 years. The first task order will cover a three- to four-year transition period.

The contract was awarded using a Commercial Solutions Opening approach. M1 Support Services will provide aircraft, maintenance, simulators, flight and academic instruction and related support, while the Army maintains oversight of training standards, safety requirements and operational outcomes.

The Army's Initial Entry Rotary-Wing Flight Training program, run at the Aviation Center of Excellence at Fort Rucker for more than 50 years, currently trains approximately 1,250 new aviators annually.

"Flight School Next delivers a critical improvement in our Initial Entry Rotary Wing Training model. Simply put, it delivers new military helicopter pilots with far better foundational skills," said Maj. Gen. Clair A. Gill, commanding general of the U.S. Army Aviation Center of Excellence. "The fact that it delivers this increased capability at a significant long-term savings to our Army is a great added benefit."

Flight School Next consolidates aviation training functions into a single framework, replacing multiple contracts. The program is designed to ensure students demonstrate foundational aviation skills, safe aircraft operation, terrain flight proficiency, navigation skills and tactical mission planning capabilities.