Bell to provide revised data for local assembly of 30 attack helicopters, with Boeing unwilling to respond
Bell Helicopter is preparing a new offer for Taiwan to locally produce 30 AH-1Z attack helicopters, following an informal request from the country’s industrial development bureau (IDB).
If the Bell proposal is accepted, the aircraft would be produced by Taiwan’s Aerospace Industrial Development Corporation (AIDC), although sources suggest that a contract will not be awarded until at least 2007. The delay stems from Taipei’s need to conclude deals to acquire US equipment, including Lockheed Martin P-3C anti-submarine warfare aircraft and Raytheon/Lockheed Patriot PAC-3 air defence missile systems.
Boeing has so far been unwilling to respond to the IDB request, because it wants to avoid upsetting mainland China. Boeing Integrated Defense Systems international business development manager David Brostrom says the company will only prepare a new AH-64D Apache Longbow bid if a formal government-to-government request is made.
The US government in early 2004 supplied Taiwan with pricing and availability data on the AH-1Z and AH-64D, but this information has since expired. Taiwan’s army rated the Apache above the AH-1Z in a cost and operational effectiveness analysis based on the original data, but a follow-on assessment could be conducted next year using Bell’s co-production proposal.
Although this could increase costs, Taipei could favour the strategy as a means of expanding the capabilities of AIDC, which already supplies tail booms for the US Marine Corps’ AH-1Z and UH-1Y utility helicopter programme.
Bell last month delivered the USMC’s first production examples of the AH-1Z and UH-1Y to NAS Patuxent River in Maryland ahead of an operational evaluation of the types from early 2006.
The USMC will receive 180 remanufactured AH-1Zs and 100 new-build UH-1Ys.
BRENDAN SOBIE/SINGAPORE
Source: Flight International
