Officials lay groundwork to buy new Army helicopters
After final approval of the requirements package, the Army would release a request for proposals to the defense industry.
The Army hopes to complete the first step toward launching an armed reconnaissance helicopter program by Dec. 1, according to a military officer overseeing the effort. In the next four weeks, the Army's Training and Doctrine Command is expected to wrap up work on a requirements document that will guide how the service will proceed with the new chopper, Brig. Gen. Walter Davis, director of Army aviation, said Thursday.
After a review by Army leaders, that document will go to the four-star officers comprising the Joint Requirements Oversight Council, which would likely approve it early next year.
Two weeks ago, John Young, the Pentagon's top acquisition official, canceled Bell Helicopter Textron's contract to build an armed reconnaissance helicopter, citing steep cost overruns and schedule delays.
After final approval of the requirements package, the Army would release a request for proposals to the defense industry. Davis said no decisions had been made on the timing for the much-anticipated request for proposals, but made it clear the Army wants to move as quickly as possible to begin a competition to build the new helicopters.
"The goal is to do this rapidly," Davis said. Davis also acknowledged the Army will be cautious because officials "don't want to rush" and risk sending the wrong capability to the field.
In 2005, the Army awarded a $2.2 billion contract to the Fort Worth, Texas-based Bell Helicopter to build 368 ARHs, a program that was born out of the demise of the Comanche reconnaissance and attack helicopter the year before. Defense Department officials have estimated that the price of each helicopter jumped from $8.6 million to $14.5 million, while the delivery schedule for the first aircraft went from 2009 to 2013. Davis said he expects several firms to submit proposals for the program and stressed that it would be an open competition in which any firm -- including Bell Helicopter -- could compete.
The delay to fielding the ARH will put additional strains on the aging fleet of OH-58 Kiowa Warriors. The Army hoped to begin retiring the observation helicopters in 2007, but delays to the ARH program forced them to alter their plans for retiring the fleet. Much of the $377 million approved for the ARH in fiscal 2009 will go to modernizing and upgrading the Kiowas, which have been in high demand in Iraq. But the Army, which has not submitted a reprogramming proposal to Capitol Hill, will use some of that funding to outfit two National Guard battalions with AH-64D Apache Longbow helicopters, Davis said. Meanwhile, Davis and other officials appear confident the Army can keep the Kiowas flying well into the future. Col. Frank Muth, who commanded a Kiowa squadron in Iraq in 2004 and 2005 and now works for Davis, said the service has been diligent about maintaining the OH-58s, which have logged more than 2.6 million flight hours during operations overseas since 2003. The long-term modernization program, dubbed Life Support 2020, is expected to add years to the life of the airframes. "I'm very comfortable with what they're doing to address some of those issues based on that it's an older aircraft," Muth said.