Background
During the mid-1960s, the United States Army initiated the Advanced Aerial Fire Support System (AAFSS) program, which led to the development of the Lockheed AH-56 Cheyenne for use in the anti-tank gunship role. The US Army pursued the AH-1G HueyCobra as an "interim type" for the "jungle fighting" role. However, the Army's broader concern was the task of protecting Western Europe from the legions of Warsaw Pact armor to the east. The main scenario used by NATO throughout the Cold War was that, if the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact forces were to conduct a massive tank offensive attack Western Europe, they would probably cross either the Fulda Gap (capturing Frankfurt first and then aiming for the westward bend of the Rhine south of Wiesbaden: a total distance of just 85 miles), or cross the North German Plain (see map). The Advanced Attack Helicopter was conceived from the need to defend against such an attack.
In 1971, political friction increased between the Army and the Air Force over the close air support (CAS) mission. The Air Force asserted that the Cheyenne would infringe on the Air Force's CAS mission in support of the Army, which had been mandated with the Key West Agreement of 1948. The Department of Defense (DOD) conducted a study which concluded that Air Force's A-X program, the Navy's proposed Harrier, and the Cheyenne were significantly different that they did not constitute a duplication of capabilities.
The Army convened a special task force under General Marks in January 1972, to reevaluate the requirements for an attack helicopter. The task force conducted flight evaluations of the AH-56, along with two industry alternatives for comparison; the Bell 309 King Cobra and Sikorsky S-67 Blackhawk. In 1972, the Army conducted a competitive fly-off of the helicopters from the spring 1972 until July 1972. The Army determined the three helicopters could not fulfill its requirements.
In April 1972, the Senate published its report on CAS. The report recommended funding of the Air Force's A-X program, which would become the A-10 Thunderbolt II, and limited procurement of the Harrier for the Navy. The report never referred to the Cheyenne by name and only offered a lukewarm recommendation for the Army to continue to seek to procure attack helicopters, so long as their survivability could be improved. The Cheyenne program was canceled by the Army on 9 August 1972. The helicopter's large size and inadequate night/all-weather capability were reasons stated by the Army for the cancellation.
Read more about this topic: Advanced Attack Helicopter
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