Capability Program Executive Aviation (CPE Aviation)
CPE Aviation buys every aircraft the conventional Army flies and most of what hangs off them. It is the former PEO Aviation, redesignated under the 2025-26 acquisition reform and placed under PAE_Maneuver_Air. Its center of gravity is the transition from a Black Hawk, Apache and Chinook fleet to a tiltrotor-plus-uncrewed fleet built around the MV-75.
| Type | Capability Program Executive (CPE) |
| Headquarters | Redstone_Arsenal, Huntsville, AL |
| Capability Program Executive | Rodney_Davis (SES) |
| Subordinate to | PAE_Maneuver_Air (Fort Rucker, AL) for portfolio direction; ASAALT for acquisition authority |
| Predecessor | PEO_Aviation |
| Established | Redesignated 2026 under the November 2025 acquisition reform |
Mission
Design, develop, deliver, and support Army aviation capability for operational commanders and allied partners: crewed rotorcraft, fixed wing, uncrewed aircraft, engines, avionics and mission systems, survivability equipment, and the ground support that keeps them flying. CPE Aviation also carries one of the largest foreign military sales portfolios in the department.
No Title 10 section establishes this office by name. Army capability program executives are designated by the Army Acquisition Executive, the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology at 10 U.S.C. § 7016(b)(5)(A), acting under the Secretary of the Army’s authority to organize the Department of the Army at 10 U.S.C. § 7013(b)(2), and the portfolio acquisition executive role such an office performs is defined at 10 U.S.C. § 1732, added by Pub. L. 119-60 in December 2025, as explained at Title_10_Structure.
Subordinate Organizations
Project offices carried into CPE Aviation from PEO_Aviation at Redstone_Arsenal:
- PM_Utility_Helicopters (UHPO) — UH-60M Black Hawk modernization and sustainment, and the MV-75 “Cheyenne” Future Long Range Assault Aircraft
- PM_Cargo_Helicopters — CH-47F Block II Chinook
- PM_Apache_Attack_Helicopter — AH-64E and Apache future development
- PM_Uncrewed_Aircraft_Systems (PM UAS) — Army uncrewed aircraft, long-range reconnaissance systems, joint autonomous aerial resupply
- PM_Aviation_Mission_Systems_and_Architecture — cockpits, avionics, mission computing, the open architecture third-party payloads plug into
- PM_Improved_Turbine_Engine — the T901 ITEP powerplant for Black Hawk and Apache
- PM_Fixed_Wing — the Army fixed-wing fleet
- PM_Aviation_Systems and the Multinational Aviation Special Project Office — FMS and coalition aviation programs
Verify before citing
The FARA project office stood down after the Army cancelled FARA in February 2024. Aircraft survivability equipment programs were realigned toward PAE_Maneuver_Air from the intelligence and EW portfolio during the reform. Project office boundaries in this portfolio moved repeatedly through 2026, so confirm against the current org chart before relying on a specific office name.
Program Element families
- 0605241A Future Long Range Assault Aircraft, the MV-75 line
- 0607136A Black Hawk Product Improvement
- 0607137A Chinook Product Improvement
- 0607145A Apache Future Development
- 0607139A Improved Turbine Engine Program and 0203752A Aircraft Engine Component Improvement
- 0603801A Aviation Advanced Development
- 0604201A Aircraft Avionics
- 0605051A Aircraft Survivability Development and 0605035A Common Infrared Countermeasures
- 0602148A and 0603465A Future Vertical Lift
- 0605830A Aviation Ground Support Equipment, 0604633A Air Traffic Control, 0605606A Aircraft Certification
- Uncrewed: 0305219A Gray Eagle, 0604113A Future Tactical UAS, 0607143A UAS Universal Products, 0604101A and 0605205A SUAV
Procurement rolls up through Aircraft Procurement, Army. See Program Elements and Appropriations.
Why it matters
MV-75 is the tentpole. The Bell V-280-derived tiltrotor is the Army’s largest aviation new start since Comanche, and it drags a whole supplier ecosystem behind it: drive systems, composite structures, mission computing, sensors, survivability. Fielding decisions here set the aviation industrial base for the 2030s.
The legacy fleet is not going away, and that is where the recurring revenue is. Black Hawk modernization and sustainment, CH-47F Block II, and AH-64E remanufacture are multi-decade production and services lines with continuous RFI activity. Sikorsky and Lockheed_Martin, Boeing, GE_Aerospace and Honeywell anchor these, with a deep tier-2 base around Huntsville.
Open architecture is the door for non-primes. PM Aviation Mission Systems and Architecture owns the interface standards. Payload, sensor, and software vendors get in through the architecture, not through the airframer.
Uncrewed is the fastest-moving money. PM UAS awarded production contracts in 2026 for long-range reconnaissance and joint autonomous aerial resupply, and launched effects flight testing off Black Hawk and Apache continued through the year. This is where new entrants have realistically won work. Note that autonomy integration increasingly sits with CPE_Mission_Autonomy, so read the issuing office on a solicitation carefully.
FMS is a real channel. Apache, Black Hawk, and Chinook foreign sales run through this portfolio in coordination with DASA_Defense_Exports_Cooperation.
See Also
- PAE_Maneuver_Air — parent portfolio
- CPE_Special_Programs_Air — special operations aviation, the sister CPE under PAE Maneuver Air
- CPE_Mission_Autonomy — autonomy integration across domains
- CPE_Intelligence_Spectrum_Warfare — aerial ISR sensors and the aircraft survivability lineage
- ASAALT, T2COM, Aviation_Center_of_Excellence
- Program Elements, Defense_Acquisition_System, JCIDS