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NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The U.S. Army will again seek to cancel the CH-47F Chinook Block II after previously recommitting to the program, according to the congresswoman who represents Boeing’s facility in Pennsylvania.
Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Pa.), in a statement for the House Armed Services Committee’s April 15 Member Day, said the Army’s fiscal 2027 budget does not include any funding for the Block II program.
The Army has gone back and forth on the program in recent years, first looking to delay it in 2019. In 2024, as part of a rebalance of its aviation portfolio, it declared its intent to continue the program and began requesting the aircraft in fiscal 2025. Scanlon says the cut is a ploy to have Congress add the funding back.
“The whiplash from the Army over the past seven years is a textbook case of the problems that plague procurement and have led to the deterioration of the defense industrial base,” Scanlon says. “While I do not want to impugn the intentions of Army leadership, it is clear that they have cut Chinook funding so they can request funding elsewhere in the budget, knowing that Congress will backstop the program.”
Scanlon says the production line at Boeing’s Ridley Park, Pennsylvania, facility has fallen below the minimum sustaining rate. Boeing has delivered six CH-47F Block II aircraft to the U.S. Army. In September 2025, the company received an award for nine aircraft, followed by an award for six more recently, says Heather McBryan, Boeing’s vice president and H-47 program manager. This makes a total of 24 aircraft on contract.
Additionally, the fiscal 2027 budget includes funding for five MH-47G Block II special operations variants. Three Block II F models are in production now, with the next delivery at the end of the year. Boeing will then start delivering foreign military sales helicopters for Egypt, South Korea and the United Kingdom.
The Army Aviation Association of America is holding its 2026 Army Aviation Warfighting Summit
April 15-17 in Nashville, where the Army aviation community is gathered to focus on aviation issues.
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