Reduces Bell ARH Order By 30 Percent
Delays and increasing costs has caused the Pentagon to cut the
number of Textron Inc. Army helicopters it had planned to purchase
through 2013.
The Army will only buy 250 Bell armed reconnaissance helicopters
(ARH) during the next five years, instead of 348 originally
planned, according to Bloomberg.
The helicopters, originally priced to cost about $10.3 million
apiece in inflation-adjusted dollars, including research and
development, will now cost about $12.3 million each, a 20 percent
increase.
A memo from Pentagon Comptroller Tina Jonas said, "significant
schedule slippage has occurred due to development and testing
delays." Jonas agreed to the Army-proposed cuts.
Over the next two years helicopters will be tested, from 2008 to
2010, to complete "unanticipated component testing" in what's now a
$6.3 billion program, her memo said.
The biggest slashes are in fiscal years 2009 and 2010. The Army
will reduce its 2009 order down from 64, taking delivery of 28 ARHs
instead; and another 42 in 2010, down from 80.
In something of a mixed message, the cuts come one month after
the Pentagon increased the program's budget by $1 billion to
compensate for higher labor and material costs, and upgrades to the
main rotor system.
The ARH program aims to adapt Bell's commercial 407 helicopter
to a military role, to replace the current OH-58D Kiowa Warrior
observation helicopter. The new chopper will sport Hellfire
missiles, and a gun capable of firing 2,000 rounds per minute.
A handful of the helicopters are now in testing. The idea was to
have them ready in 2008 to replace aircraft lost in Iraq... but a
series of program snags, including a hard landing by one of the prototypes in
February, bumped that schedule back.
Bell Helicopter outbid Boeing in 2005 to develop and build the
first phase of what was to be a 512-chopper program. Other aircraft
will be purchased after 2013.
The program earned a reprieve from getting axed in Congress this
year, which approved only $175 million to buy 12
helicopters in fiscal 2008. The Pentagon had requested $468 million
to buy 37 helicopters.
"The Army and Bell coordinated on the restructure of the ARH
Program, and the numbers you quoted are consistent with the
restructure plans," said Mike Cox spokesman for Fort Worth,
TX-based Bell Helicopter.
"The extension of the development contract and the provision of
production funding indicate the level of confidence the Army," the
Pentagon and Congress have in the ARH Program, Cox said.
Army spokesman Major Thomas McCuin wouldn’t speculate on
the program until the budget is formally released in February.
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