Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC
SIKORSKY'S AMBITIONS of selling UH-60 Black Hawks to the US Marine Corps, in a deal worth as much as $1.5 billion, have been dealt a serious blow by a recommendation from a senior Department of Defense official that the USMC modernise its existing helicopter fleet instead.
An aide to Paul Kaminski, the Pentagon's acquisition chief, recommends that the USMC stick with plans to modernise in-service Bell Helicopter Textron UH-1Ns.
George Schneiter, the Pentagon's director for strategic and tactical systems, tells Kaminski in a memorandum seen by Flight International that preliminary cost estimates for the UH-60 and UH-1 utility helicopter options favour the UH-1N rebuilds.
Schneiter says that he sees no reason to change the USMC's helicopter-modernisation plan. "I also do not feel it is necessary for you to be briefed further on this," Schneiter tells Kaminski.
A briefing document on the Marine H-1 Upgrades Programme lists total procurement costs of as much as $1.55 billion for Black Hawks, against $912 million for the UH-1N upgrade project.
Kaminski must soon determine the future of planned near-term US military procurements of UH-60 Black Hawks, UH-1Ns and AH-1Ws. As part of the fiscal year 1997 defence budget, he must decide whether to tell the US Navy, US Air Force and USMC to join the US Army in procuring more UH-60s.
USMC involvement is critical to the unsolicited proposal made by Sikorsky, but the USMC prefers a plan to modernise its fleet of aging UH-1Ns.
Source: Flight International
