Fort Worth’s Helicopter Institute just locked in a major win, landing a $57.4 million U.S. Navy contract to keep training student helicopter pilots at the city’s Joint Reserve Base through 2030. The deal keeps contractor-run flight instruction in town and leans on local instructors for primary and basic rotary-wing training, adding one more brick to the region’s growing aerospace and defense cluster.
What the contract covers
The agreement is a $57,484,392 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery and indefinite-quantity contract awarded by the Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division on Jan. 28, 2026. It calls for basic and primary flight instruction for designated Navy rotary-wing students at Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth. The work was competed as a small-business set-aside, with two offers received, and no funds obligated at the time of award. Money will instead be attached to individual task orders as they are issued, according to the U.S. Department of Defense.
How the COPT-R pipeline works
The contract extends the Navy’s Contractor Operated Pilot Training - Rotary (COPT-R) pipeline, which launched in 2023 and shifted student naval aviators into helicopter instruction in Fort Worth rather than sending them through a fixed-wing phase first. Navy reporting says students in the Fort Worth track complete initial rotary instruction roughly seven months faster than traditional cohorts and that the model delivers sizable per-student savings. Those results, along with the ready supply of local instructors and aircraft, helped convince the Navy to stick with the Fort Worth contractor for the follow-on work, according to the Navy Reserve.
The TH-66 Sage trainer
As part of the contract, Helicopter Institute is phasing in the TH-66 Sage as its primary training platform. The TH-66 is a military training variant based on the Robinson R-66 turbine helicopter. Robinson and industry reporting say the R-66 based TH-66 offers lower acquisition and operating costs than legacy trainers, a selling point as services update their initial rotorcraft syllabi. Coverage also notes that the TH-66 has already been used in Army training experiments and is being evaluated across services, underscoring its growing presence in military pilot training programs; see Robinson Helicopter Company and FlightGlobal for background.
What the company says
Helicopter Institute is treating the award as both an expansion of its defense portfolio and a public vote of confidence in its training approach. "This award reflects our team’s unwavering commitment to excellence, our deep expertise in rotorcraft training, and our dedication to strengthening the capabilities of those who serve our nation," said Ashley Mikel, the company’s director of business development.
Randy Rowles, Helicopter Institute’s president, said the new deal "reflects the United States Navy’s confidence in our people, our training philosophy, and our unwavering commitment to producing safe, standardized, and mission ready aviators," in a company statement released with the announcement, per the Helicopter Institute.
Why it matters locally
For Fort Worth, the contract keeps flying hours, civilian instructor positions and aircraft maintenance work anchored at the local base, reinforcing the city’s defense-industry footprint around Meacham and NAS JRB Fort Worth. Local coverage that first reported the award pointed to continuity with the helicopter training program that started here in 2023, along with economic spillover for nearby vendors and support services. The follow-on contract effectively secures a multi-year run of contractor-operated helicopter instruction in Fort Worth, as noted by Fort Worth Report.
The award runs through Oct. 1, 2030, and the contract notice reiterates that funding will arrive via individual task orders rather than upfront at award. Readers who want the official contract language or the full company statement can find them in the U.S. Department of Defense contract listing and the Helicopter Institute press release from Helicopter Institute.
