Major USA Military Aviation Training Contract Opens for Bidding in 2025 to Support 1,500 Pilots Per Year

United States – The U.S. Army has issued its formal call for industry solutions for Flight School Next, a major restructuring of the Army’s Initial Entry Rotary Wing (IERW) training that will shift pilot instruction onto a contractor-owned, contractor-operated (COCO) model for the first time in Army aviation history.

Designed to support 900–1,500 student pilots per year, the Flight School Next initiative represents one of the largest pilot-training procurements ever undertaken by the Department of Defense and will reshape the training pipeline for future Army aviators across five aircraft types.

• The selected contractor will supply a fully commercial training ecosystem, including aircraft, maintenance, spare parts, instructors, and simulators—ending decades of government-owned, contractor-supported structures within IERW at Fort Rucker (Fort Novosel).

• Training will cover the AH-64E Apache, UH-60M Black Hawk, CH-47F Chinook, C-12U Huron, and the Army’s next-generation Future Long Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA/MV-75).

• The contract will run for 26 years, with a one-year build-up phase before training begins to allow for aircraft delivery, simulator installation, instructor onboarding, and operational setup.

• The Army will provide hangars, ramp space, classrooms, storage, and training areas; the contractor will provide everything else.

• The IERW program has historically trained 980–1,380 pilots per year across multiple contracts for maintenance, simulation, logistics and instruction. Flight School Next consolidates these into one integrated training provider.

• The Army intends to ramp to full operating capacity over four years:

  • Year 1: ~310 students

  • Year 2: ~620 students

  • Year 3: ~930 students

  • Year 4: ~1,250 students

A pre-solution conference will be held at Redstone Arsenal to brief industry teams on the four-phase submission and evaluation process. Responses to the competitive solicitation are due 8 December at 2:00 p.m.

Source: U.S. Army solicitation notice