AHS International is deeply disappointed to announce that a new U.S. Army directive has made HELMOT unexecutable. The Directive was signed on October 17, which did not leave sufficient time to develop any alternatives or have a waiver considered. Note that other events, such as the Golf Tournament to benefit USO and the JMR meeting will still be held. If you had made hotel reservations, please remember to cancel them if you no longer need them.

Please read the letter from the HELMOT General Chair for more details:

I regret to inform you that the AHS-HRC board of directors met [yesterday] to discuss the fate of HELMOT XV, and it was decided through a majority vote to cancel HELMOT XV. All registration and exhibitor fees will be fully refunded.

The new policy regarding Army attendance at non-DoD conferences adversely affected HELMOT XV by suspending participation of the majority of speakers and attendees. The request for an exception to the new policy was not approved.

I chose this year’s HELMOT theme: “Vertical Lift Technology: Mission Performance Now – Flexibility for the Future” earlier this year because of its relevance to the vertical lift community including warfighters, operators, government, and industry. I wanted HELMOT to focus on how the mission was being performed in today’s environment with current technology and also to focus on the plans and ideas for performing those missions in the future with changing mission requirements and restricted budgets. We are seeing the results of those restricted budgets much sooner than I expected.

I would like to thank everyone who planned on supporting and participating in HELMOT.

Sincerely,

Matthew P. Shivers, General Chair
Helicopter Military Operations Technology (HELMOT) XV Specialists’ Meeting
AHS Hampton Roads Chapter

Important Update on the JMR meeting:

The U.S. Army is still hosting its Joint Multi-Role (JMR) Technology Demonstrator (TD) Industry Day. The meeting will be held on Thursday November 1, from 1 pm to 5 pm. The deadline to RSVP has now passed. Point of Contact: Robert Waible, 757-878-2062, robert.c.waible.civ@mail.mil

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