From Aviation Week

 

President Publicly Reconsiders Marine One

Feb 24, 2009

By Bettina H. Chavanne and Michael Bruno

 

The high-profile VH-71 presidential replacement helicopter program came under the highest profile possible Monday when President Barack Obama and his former Republican rival for the White House lamented the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps project while discussing economic crises.

 

“The helicopter I have now seems perfectly adequate to me,” Obama noted.

 

The comment sent both the Navy, which runs the program, and manufacturer Lockheed Martin scurrying. “We are committed to the program’s success and are confident we can deliver the required number of helicopters compliant with the specifications that emerge from the ongoing review,” a Lockheed spokesman said after the comments by Obama and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

 

Defense and Wall Street analysts, like the Exane BNP Paribas Capital Goods Team, have noted that they doubt the program would be canceled, re-competed or significantly cut, although they would not be surprised to see if requirements are scaled back and the program stretched (Aerospace DAILY, Feb. 19). However, others have proffered that dramatically altering the presidential helo effort, which has suffered a formal Nunn-McCurdy cost-schedule violation, could be a strong example of Obama’s call for sacrifice and thriftiness.

 

Washington pressures are triangulating amidst Capitol Hill, the White House and the Pentagon to cut back or cull weapons spending, with Obama set tonight and Thursday to outline major budget plans for the federal government.

 

[CV32: Is it just me, or does the comment seem more than a little naive?]

From Flight Global

 

DATE: 26/02/09

SOURCE: Flight International

Blade and cockpit technologies promise long-life VH-3D

By John Croft

 

A new set of composite rotorblades available for Sikorsky S-61 heavy twins could boost performance and add decades of life to the type's VH-3D presidential fleet derivative - for as little as $1.25 million per aircraft.

 

That upgrade option focuses attention on a brewing political battle that could doom the Lockheed Martin VH-71 programme, which is intended to replace the VH-3D with a modified AgustaWestland AW101. The VH-71 started life in 2005 as a $6 billion US Navy contract, but has seen its cost to date soar to $11 billion owing to modifications demanded after the navy realised its requirements greatly exceeded the aircraft's design limits.

 

At a White House fiscal responsibility summit this week Senator John McCain chided President Barack Obama about the VH-71: "Your helicopter is now going to cost as much as Air Force One [the modified Boeing 747s acquired by the US Air Force in 1990 for about $400 million each]. "I don't think there's any more graphic demonstration of how good ideas have cost taxpayers an enormous amount of money."

 

Obama replied that he has spoken with defence secretary Robert Gates about a "thorough review of the helicopter situation", and also mocked the apparent need to replace the Sikorsky VH-3D and VH-60 fleet with a new presidential helicopter: "The helicopter I have seems perfectly adequate to me. Of course, I've never had a helicopter before. Maybe I've been deprived and I didn't know it."

 

Whether building political momentum will bring an axe down on the VH-71 remains to be seen, but the project has crossed the 50% cost overrun limit which, under the Nunn-McCurdy law, automatically requires the military to consider terminating a contract.

 

And, Obama has remarked: "I think [the VH-71] is an example of the procurement process gone amuck. And we're going to have to fix it."

 

Meanwhile, Sikorsky by May plans to have certificated for the VH-3D the new composite main rotor blades, developed by Carson Helicopters and approved by the US Federal Aviation Administration in 2004. A five-blade upgrade, which also involves strengthening the helicopter's tail pylon and transmission mounts, will cost just $1.25 million per aircraft and boost lift capacity by 910kg (2,000lb), speed by 15kt (28km/h) for the same power level and double service life to 20,000h.

 

Other upgrades being packaged by Sikorsky as the S-61 Triton include a Carson composite tail rotor that the company says will increase payload by 180kg by reducing by 50shp (35kW) the amount of power needed by the tail. A new glass cockpit featuring Sagem displays has just been certificated and engine manufacturer GE is investigating an upgrade to the VH-3D's CT-58 engines that will boost total power by 370shp to 1,870shp.