Guns, butter, and helicopters

Reason Online's email brought to my attention that the US military helicopter fleet, collectively, is hardly any better off than our strategic bomber fleet. We cannibalize the unfit, and continuously upgrade the rest; all of them continue to age.

[T]he newest additions to the Marine Corps helicopter fleet: three MH-53E Sea Dragons that had been sitting in an aircraft "boneyard" in the Arizona desert for about a decade. .... The Super Stallion is the Corps' only heavy lift helicopter, and its workhorse. It moves large amounts of cargo and troops long distances and performs rescue missions. .... The Marines' fleet of 150 is working hard.

No new heavy-lift military helicopter is in the pipeline. That's unacceptable.

I support development of a next-generation heavy-lift (22.5 tons) helicopter. One informal proposal calls it the SpeedCrane (you'll have to scroll way down on this page to see their argument and mockup). Though I prefer a genuine NOTAR (No Tail Rotor) design, I'll defer to the winner of a fly-off.