PAUL LEWIS / WASHINGTON DC
The US Army has slashed its plan to buy Boeing Sikorsky RAH-66 Comanche helicopters by almost half to 650 as part of a newly approved restructuring plan that moves $3.4 billion from production to completing system development and demonstration (SDD). This move could force the army to spend more on modernising and retaining its Boeing AH-64D Apache Longbows.
Defence undersecretary for acquisition Pete Aldridge was due late last week to sign the Acquisition Decision Memorandum, giving the plan final Department of Defense approval. The restructured plan, the sixth and almost certainly last rejig of the troubled programme, had already cleared the critical Defense Acquisition Board. Any further overruns on the $6.6 billion SDD budget or schedule will probably result in the Comanche's cancellation.
Details of the plan were largely known, apart from the size of the cut in the original purchase of 1,213 RAH-66s (Flight International, 21-27 May). The army had been looking to accelerate production from 62 to 96 machines a year to complete the acquisition earlier and generate savings to plough into SDD, but the decision to cut numbers signals a recognition that even with the hike in US defence spending there still is a "procurement train wreck coming down the line", says an official.
The plan delays initial fielding of Comanche to late 2009 and the reduced number raises questions about the eventual unit cost of the helicopter which has already risen from its $7.5 million goal to nearly $20 million a copy. The US Army is also now having to look at retaining the Apache longer than originally planned to make up the shortfall in numbers and increase funding for a proposed Block 3 and 4 upgrade to integrate the helicopter into the future Objective Force
Source: Flight International
