The desire to field a new US Presidential helicopter as quickly as possible in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks was a major factor in escalating cost and schedule problems for the VH-71 programme, the man at the helm said at Farnborough yesterday.
Capt Don Geddis, VH-71 programme manager, says the original development was schedule- rather than event-driven and this, coupled with a lack of proper understanding of the full cost of the more sophisticated Increment 2 variant of the aircraft, created a programme that was impossible to execute.
Since 2005 Geddis and his team have overseen a major restructuring of the VH-71 programme and pored over 11 independent reviews that generated more than 300 recommendations. The result is a lower risk programme and one which is based on collaboration, says Geddis.
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“We have lowered the risk of the programme substantially. We have reduced the concurrency with design and build and we now have a more realistic event-driven approach.”
The VH-71 programme is led by prime contractor Lockheed Martin, working in partnership with AgustaWestland, which is providing the airframe. The aircraft will be assembled by Bell Helicopter in the US.
The restructured programme involves an Increment 1 block of five aircraft. The test aircraft have achieved 750 hours of flight tests and all the baseline VH-71As will be delivered by AgustaWestland for missionisation by the end of 2008.
Increment 2 VH-71Bs will now be fielded later than originally planned, in 2017, but will offer double the operating range through new engines, transmission and rotor blade improvements. The final fleet will total 23.
“The aircraft will be the President’s command and control centre in the sky,” says Geddis. “That means connectivity, communications and interoperability are very important.” Increment 2 aircraft will include voice over IP (VOIP), all 14 seats will have direct secure and non-secure voice and data links and the aircraft will have a greater hot and high capability.
Source: Flight International
