| Textron helicopter deal possible in FY08 - US Army |
The U.S. Army on Wednesday said it could award Textron Inc. a contract for an initial batch of 16 Armed Reconnaissance Helicopters (ARH) in fiscal 2008 if the aircraft does well in tests next month.
Brig. Gen. Stephen Mundt, director of
Army aviation, said the restructured $5.4 billion program should be
back on track if everything goes as expected with the November
workouts, a January start of production and Bell's transfer of
production facilities from Canada to Texas.
Success in all 3 events would allow the
Army to award Textron's Bell Helicopter unit a contract for 16
low-rate initial production aircraft. This would be in addition to
funds for materials needed to build 10 more, Mundt told the annual
conference of the Association of the U.S. Army, a supporters' group.
Now it was up to Bell to prove its
commitment, he said. "There are no more eggs for this omelet."
He said the Army appeared to have
persuaded lawmakers to continue funding the program rather than face
additional delays in fielding the helicopter. Army leaders are due to
give Congress a status report in January or February.
Col. Tim Crosby, another senior Army aviation official, said Congress, the
Army and top Pentagon officials were all closely watching Bell's work
on the program. "We've enabled them to make this aircraft. Now
they've got to demonstrate that they're going to do it," he
said, asserting there were no technological challenges.
The Army in May decided to let Bell
continue working on the program despite a big jump in projected
costs. Mundt said the price tag of the new helicopters was likely to
be around $9 million each, up from the $7.5 million planned for the
low-rate initial production phase and well above the initially
projected price of $5.2 million.
But the final price would depend on
decisions made by top Pentagon officials, the Army officials said.
The Army plans to buy 512 ARH helicopters and deploy them by 2017.
The Pentagon's high-level Defense
Acquisition Board is due to review the restructuring plan on Oct. 30.
If Congress did cut funding, U.S.
troops would not be able to use the new helicopter until late 2012 to
early 2013, far behind the current date of fourth-quarter 2010, Mundt
said.
Army officials say cost growth and
schedule delays arose after Bell killed plans for a commercial
aircraft that would have been used to test the ARH.
Bell has done over 900 hours of flight
tests on three developmental aircraft, said spokesman Greg Hubbard,
adding that the helicopters were doing well.
Starting over with a different supplier would have cost too much
and delayed the fielding schedule even further, Army officials said.
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