Rolls-Royce To Build New Engine Controls For OH-58D

February 23, 2010 by Matthew Potter · Comment
Filed under: Business Line, Companies, Contract Awards, Events, Military Aviation, Rolls-Royce, Services, U.S. Army, development program, logistics, production program 

The OH-58D Kiowa Warrior is the standard reconnaissance helicopter in use by the U.S. Army. As all Army Aviation it has seen a great deal of use in Iraq. Ultimately it will be replaced by the result of the current Armed Aerial Scout program. This replaced the failed Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter (ARH) program which was canceled in 2008. Due to this failure the Army must continue to invest money into the OH-58 to keep it fighting.

Rolls-Royce was awarded a contract to develop a new Full Authority Digital Engine Control (FADEC) for the aircraft. This system is one of the key components of the upgrades to the aircraft. No value for the contract was provided. FADEC systems are becoming common on helicopters and fixed wing aircraft and aid in managing fuel consumption and performance. Rolls-Royce manufactures the M250 engines for the Kiowa Warrior at their plant in Indianapolis.

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VH-71 Suffers Cost Breach and Connecticut is Lobbying

February 16, 2009 by Matthew Potter · Comment
Filed under: Business Line, Companies, Congress, Connecticut, Contract Awards, Department of Defense, Events, Federal Budget Process, Lockheed Martin, Military Aviation, Proposal, Restructuring, Services, Sikorsky, States, U.S. Navy, UTC, commercial aviation, development program, production program 

The Connecticut Post reports that the VH-71 new Presidential helicopter program suffered a “Nunn-McCurdy” cost breach. There are two levels of this breach and the higher one, a 25% increase, requires the Secretary of Defense to certify the program is still required for the U.S. national defense. The fine Senators and Congressmen from Connecticut have pricked up their ears at this development and want to meet with DoD to discuss canceling the program and giving it to Sikorsky. The contract with Lockheed Martin has seen considerable cost growth due to requirements creep since the contract was awarded. This has required wholesale changes to the EH-101 platform selected. Hence the great increase in cost and schedule for the program. Of course the DoD will have to weigh the savings if another vendor proposes something cheaper with the time required to restart the program. With a new administration it is conceivable that the contract could be canceled and started over, like ARH, but it probably won’t happen.

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Army fantasies on ARH

October 17, 2008 by Matthew Potter · Comment
Filed under: Editorial 

The Army is hoping with the termination of the Bell contract for the ARH that a new competition can be conducted and a new aircraft and contractor can be chosen.  They are living in a fantasy land.  The way that past competitions for these types of aircraft have been going any RFP and source selection will take a few months and a protest is almost guaranteed.  Without changing the requirements for the system the Army will be seeing the same bidders, Bell and Boeing.  If they do not want a larger aircraft then before Agusta Westland, EADS and Sikorsky will have a hard time preparing a proposal.  One also hopes that the Army will also prepare a more realistic cost and schedule estimate.

See Rueters for the story.

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House marks appropriations bill

August 3, 2008 by Matthew Potter · Comment
Filed under: Bell, Boeing, Congress, Contract Awards, EADS, Federal Budget Process, Military Aviation, Northrop Grumman Corp., development program, logistics, production program 

The House Appropriations Committee marked the FY09 budget before taking their August recess.  See a story here. The Army’s struggling Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter (ARH) program was marked to delete 13 aircraft, and the Navy’s Presidential Helo was also decremented. The House also ordered that consideration of jobs would be a criteria for the source selection of the KC-45 tanker. Boeing won its protest of the award to Northrop-Grumman and EADS and forced DoD to reconsider the contract. The Senate needs to also mark the bill and then there will be a Conference mark up as well.

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House Authorizers set own priorites

May 7, 2008 by Matthew Potter · Comment
Filed under: Bell, Federal Budget Process, Military Aviation, development program 

The House Armed Services Committee marked up the FY09 Defense Authorization Bill to their own priorities. See an article here. Big cuts were made to the Army’s Advanced Reconnaissance Helicopter (ARH) and Future Combat System (FCS). ARH, a new Bell helicopter to replace the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior, has had its struggles. FCS is a vast system of systems that will still get over $2 B of funding with the House cut. Of course the Senate has fully funded both programs so that will have to be worked out in Conference. Some programs did gain such as the C-17 and the House continued the second engine for the F-35 JSF despite Pentagon protests that it is not necessary. There will be many more changes by October.

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