The Navy needs to create a single unifying command responsible for all its helicopter units. This one-star command would be immediately superior to the four existing helicopter wings and report to the Commander Naval Air Forces. This new “Helo Boss” position would function to consolidate the Navy’s rotary-wing units into a single unified force.
The last two decades of naval aviation have brought about the Navy’s Helicopter Master Plan. As the legacy rotary-wing platforms have been phased out in favor of the two multimission H-60 airframes, the helicopter community has grown to make up half of the Navy’s pilots. This considerable aviation force has been molded into a strange command structure where each squadron is grouped with the others of same type and coast into four wings that exist in a horizontal structure below the Commander Naval Air Forces.
The horizontal structure leaves no deciding vote, and no central leadership. The four Commodores have done well to coordinate their efforts throughout the years, but particularly in a fiscally constrained environment, it is hard not to view things as a zero-sum game. One wing’s success can be considered to be taking away from another.
The Precedent
There is a good precedent for this type of command—the Commander Patrol and Reconnaissance Group (CPRG) is a one-star command above the patrol and reconnaissance wings. The CPRG oversees a total of 18 squadrons across three wings flying the P-3C, P-8A, and Triton unmanned aerial system (UAS). The Commander Naval Air Training Command (CNATRA) similarly is a one-star command with oversight of 18 squadrons in 5 wings, operating the Navy’s trainer fleet and the Blue Angels’ demonstrator aircraft.
By comparison, this new Commander Naval Helicopter Forces would have custody of 39 squadrons across 5 wings, 4 weapons schools, and 6 air station search and rescue units flying the MH-53E, MH-60S, MH-60R, MQ-8B, and MQ-8C. The four Commodores and their respective wings would report to the Helo Boss, but the Navy should move the four weapons schools and four fleet replacement squadrons outside of their wings to fall directly below the Helo Boss’s command.
The Challenges
There is the known constraint of Title 10 U.S. Code § 526 which limits the total number of general or flag officers on active duty. This prevents the Navy from creating the position along with the command, but a creative workaround already is in use across the service. There are numerous cases of using members of the senior executive service (SES) in positions equal to flag officers on major staffs. The Navy can exercise this option again by replacing an existing staff one-star billet with an SES professional to open up that O-7 position to serve as the Helo Boss.
There likely will be some challenges in finding spaces and allocating supporting staff billets. These easily can be overcome if the desire is there. A more substantial problem may be convincing people that this will not add an extra layer of bureaucracy without adding benefit. The highest echelons of the naval aviation enterprise are run by officers of the fighter and attack community, and nobody expects this to change anytime soon. Aligning the helicopter wings under a single Admiral who knows the platforms means the hard choices about the future of the rotary-wing fleet will come from someone with the right knowledge and experience.
The Command
The Helo Boss would have operational control of independent and expeditionary helicopter commands while maintaining administrative control of the rest. Unifying the Navy’s helicopter forces will allow the fleet to break through some of the archaic community constructs that can unintentionally pit the helicopter communities against each other. The commonality of the MH-60R and MH-60S, combined with their mission overlap makes a compelling case for a future without distinctions based on the airframe. Putting all helicopter crews under the command of the Helo Boss can make this a reality by beginning the move to a more unified community.
As the Navy looks to the future of the helicopter community, it is evident that some mixture of powered-lift and unmanned aircraft will make up the force. Less obviously, the push to a 355-ship fleet likely will require at least one more iteration of conventional helicopter acquisitions before reaching the future vertical lift program. Determining and defining these requirements would be most effective coming from this type of command. It also will be most effective with a chief of staff who is a post-major command-at-sea captain from a different helicopter community than the Admiral. This will give the best diversity of experience and expertise at the top of the command.
The Helo Boss would maintain a portfolio larger than CPRG and CNATRA combined, and lead half the pilots in the naval aviation fleet. They will take the Navy into the future of vertical lift while developing the future of the rotary-wing concept of operations. The work that the helicopter Commodores have done to advance the communities on their own is admirable, but this is the job of an Admiral.
