Bell/Agusta Hopes USCG Buys In

Don Barbour looks both ways before he speaks. He's going to tell us a secret.

"We've got the recommendation. In 40 years, the Coast Guard will have picked more than a hundred AB-139s."

But it's not a lock and Bell/Agusta's Executive Marketing Director is the first to admit it. Still, his company's helicopter is in the lead for the Coast Guard contract, part of the Deepwater Initiative. It's a planning process that attempts to see 40 years into the future. Barbour is convinced that, 40 years from now, the USCG's future will be chock-full of the yet-to-be-certified aircraft.

But Can It Beat Inertia?

Barbour ticks off the advantages of the AB-139 over its competition (mostly Eurocopter Pumas and Sikorsky Blackhawks). "More capacity. More engine power. The best lift-to-weight ratio in the industry."

The problem is, he admits, the Coast Guard lusts after equipment it already has. "God bless 'em," he says. "They're trying to figure out how to take their walking shoes and run 200 miles in them. But we've shown them they can spend roughly the same money and have an entirely new fleet of helicopters over the same 40 year time span."

The Coast Guard hasn't even flown this bird yet. Still, Barbour says, look at the advantages.

The AB-139 (above) is a huge helicopter, bigger than the Blackhawk. In fact, Barbour says some customers wonder about all that room and lifting power. He's confident, however, that the addition of coastal interdiction to the Coast Guard's list of things to do will prove the AB-139 is the right chopper for the job.

Barbour is vague on Bell/Agusta's target date for aircraft certification by the FAA. "Sometime around mid-year," he says confidently.

"Until 9/11, the Coast Guard's primary mission was rescue - between shore and 50 miles out. Now," says Barbour, "they're expected to stop an aggressor 200 miles from shore. We need someone to protect our shores. We need different assets than those used for Search And Rescue."

The new focus on homeland defense, he says, will mean an end to the short-range Dolphins, which have been in service with the USCG for some 22 years now.

"They'll need larger aircraft than the Dolphin (right). It's good for rescue, but not enough to put six or more people on board a ship suspected of being a threat. "

Carrying A Big Stick

Barbour has another story to justify the sale of AB-139s to the Coast Guard. "A couple of years ago, the Coast Guard could use its (Aerospatial HH-65A) Dolphins to shadow one of those 70-mile-an-hour boats running drugs from the islands to Florida. But they weren't armed. So what could they do, ask the bad guys to pull over? The bad guys would just laugh. Then the Coast Guard leased a couple of (McDonnell-Douglas) MD-900s and armed them with machine guns."

The Coast Guard can't shoot at people, Barbour says, but they can fire shots across a suspect's bow. "You'd be amazed at how effective that is." Now, Barbour says, "the Coast Guard has ten of these armed MD-900s and they've made such an impact that the drug runners are shipping their stuff to Canada and trucking it in from there."

Much-Needed Boost For Helicopter Industry

With a smile, Barbour notes Bell/Agusta beat out McDonnell-Douglas in the first round of competition for the Deepwater contract. And such a contract is vitally important to the American-Italian company.

"We used to make 200 aircraft a month," he says, smiling wistfully. "Now we make 200 aircraft a year. (The pace of deployment of new equipment in the Coast Guard) seems a little slower to us now."

So the nation's new focus on homeland security has been a good thing for Bell/Agusta? In a sense, says Barbour, the answer is "yes." But that's not the whole picture.

"It's been a mixed bag," he says. "On the plus side, people see the more serious missions and say, 'We need better aircraft like the 139. But on the minus side, corporate and discretionary flight is down."

Barbour is still confident, however. It's his job. "The AB-139 backlog is higher than for all other competing models... combined." Barbour believes the helicopter industry will recover from its economy-driven slump and will make great strides over the next seven to ten years. Part of that success, he hopes, will be pinned on the Coast Guard's acceptance of the AB-139 in a mission that has changed so drastically since the terror attacks on New York and Washington.

FMI: www.bellagusta.com