COMDEF: After decades without a significant new rotocraft technology, the head of Pentagon buying says he’s going to try and fund a new initiative to move helicopters and their brethren like the V-22 ahead.

It won’t be easy. “Anything is going to be very hard to squeeze into the budget,” Kendall told reporters during a Q and A session here. The US has not had any “cutting edge design for some time,” he said after a morning speech at the ComDef international defense conference.

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