In August 1986, the Defense Science Board review revealed that the Army suffered from stovepiping in a program development sense, and could not think outside the box.

A single-crew version was an early requirement, but depended upon successful development of a risky electronic package.

[5] The Bell-McDonnell Douglas design featured ordnance carriage within a combined wing/sponson and instead of a tail rotor used a NOTAR ducted exhaust system.

The Boeing-Sikorsky design carried ordnance within upward swinging gull-wing doors in the sides of the fuselage and featured a fenestron tail rotor.

The termination happened for several reasons; among them were unrealistic and unachievable overarching requirements, the rising projected cost of production, changing aviation mission of the Army (refusal to consider the changing threat environment), lack of sufficient funding for other critical aviation needs, the lack of achieving reduced risk of certain key technologies, and chronic groupthink.