The award was confirmed in October 2006 following protests from losing bidders. In August, the UH-145 was officially designated UH-72A by the Department of Defense. Army announced that the UH-145 as the winner of the $3 billion LUH contract. EADS North America (EADS NA) marketed the UH-145 variant of the EC 145 for the program. At least five proposals were received, including the Bell 210 and Bell 412, MD Explorer, and AgustaWestland AW139. The LUH contract was released in July 2005. The LUH program was initiated in early 2004, with an initial requirement for 322 helicopters to conduct homeland security, administrative, logistic, medical evacuation (MEDEVAC) and support of the army test and training centers missions. The Army Staff decided that these three aircraft, the Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter (ARH), the Light Utility Helicopter (LUH), and the Future Cargo Aircraft (FCA) (later renamed Joint Cargo Aircraft, or JCA), were to be existing, in-production commercial aircraft modified for Army service. To replace the capability of the cancelled Comanche, the US Army planned several programs, including three new aircraft. As part of the termination, the Army retained the future years' funding intended for the Comanche. Department of Defense and the US Army made the decision to terminate the RAH-66 program. As the program was developed, the light utility version was dropped and focus was placed on the light attack reconnaissance version, which eventually became the RAH-66 Comanche. One was a light utility version ("LHX-U") for assault and tactical movement of troops and supplies, the other was a light scout/attack version ("LHX-SCAT") to complement the growing development of the AH-64 Apache. Army's LHX program began in the early 1980s, proposing two helicopter designs with a high percentage of commonality of dynamic components. The UH-72 performs logistics and support missions within the US for homeland security, disaster response missions, and medical evacuations. In October 2006, American Eurocopter was awarded a production contract for 345 aircraft to replace the aging Bell UH-1H/V Iroquois and Bell OH-58A/C Kiowa helicopters in the US Army and Army National Guard fleets. Initially marketed as the UH-145, the helicopter was selected as winner of the United States Army's Light Utility Helicopter (LUH) program on 30 June 2006. The UH-72 is a militarized version of the Eurocopter EC145, built by American Eurocopter (now Airbus Helicopters, Inc.), a division of Airbus Group, Inc. The Eurocopter (now Airbus Helicopters) UH-72 Lakota is a twin-engine helicopter with a single, four-bladed main rotor.
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