- What do they plan on transporting?
Not active duty soldiers, obviously.
Where are the cost savings? There will remain still need for maintenance & training flight hours too, to keep the edge (of forward deployable forces) sharp enough.
What happens to the Apache pilots now in Guard units? Will they be replaced by active duty Army? That will eat into any savings, unless one plans on semi- mothballing large numbers of those AH aircraft.
As it could effect order of battle units, it seems to me to that sending Blackhawks to the Guard in trade, puts those Guard units nearer the tip of the spear also, but less swiftly accessible for immediate use, even as it would separate in-unit Army Air Guard cover for ground transported Guard units, if or when push comes to shove.
This shifting of force could result in having whichever AH pilots end up with those birds, flying further from their own friendly, boots-on-the-ground covering forces, facing strong possibility of those helicopters being extended further to the tip (of spear) but along increasingly slender shaft (of spear) and support.
Some recovering of co-ordination of deployed forces can be achieved thru the folding of whichever Guard units into Army Division-- but at some price as to lack of well-lubricated cohesion. Since that's been the order-of-the-day otherwise --- I'm still wondering just where the cost saving are in taking the Attack Helicopters from the Guard.
If the monetary savings are in regards to a drawing down of active duty Airmobile infantrymen numbers, with the Guard in some recovery fleshing out those numbers and being "cheaper to keep" than full-time active duty, at least on paper...and some up-front actual monetary costs, where then other than the "what" which stands to be most immediately transported are any real savings, and at what costs to deployable order of battle force?
Pushing units around on paper --- is one thing. War gaming, another. The real thing -- we better had get it right from the first stabs as "it", whatever those "it" may appear on near-future horizon to be, while standing ready enough for what most likely could appear.
Thirteen olive branches bearing thirteen olives in hand (right hand) dextrous. Thirteen ready arrows in the hand (left hand) sinister.
Don't let your right hand know so much what your left is doing? And vice-versa...