Air Force seeks revised rescue helicopter bids

By Andrea Shalal-Esa

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Air Force on Thursday said
it was calling for revised bids to build up to 146 combat
search-and-rescue helicopters to reflect a proposal to add $849
million in additional funds to the program.

Air Force spokesman Doug Karas said the additional money
would allow the Air force to begin developing a more capable
version of the new helicopter in 2009, two years sooner than
previously planned.

Analysts estimate the Air Force will spend $8 billion to
$10 billion overall to replace its Sikorsky HH-60G Pave Hawks
in a program that will include five test aircraft and up to 141
production helicopters.

Karas said the revised bids were due on March 27. That
means a contract award, which had been expected in May, is now
more likely to come in August.

The competition is a replay of the 2004-2005 competition to
build the next presidential helicopter.

A team led by Lockheed Martin Corp. and AgustaWestland
Inc., owned by Italy’s Finmeccanica SpA, is offering a version
of its US101, which beat out Sikorsky in January 2005 to win a
$6 billion contract to build the next presidential helicopter.

Sikorsky, a unit of United Technologies Corp., has teamed
with Boeing Co. to offer a helicopter based on its twin-engined
VH-92, which it had also pitched for the presidential
helicopter.

In addition, Boeing has a separate bid in to replace the
Pave Hawk with a variant of its CH-47 or Chinook helicopter.
Under the old plan, all 141 aircraft would have been
retrofitted with more equipment starting in 2011. The new plan
would give the Air Force 36 helicopters produced with the
higher standards to begin with, Karas said.

The Air Force will use the helicopters to rescue wounded
soldiers from the battlefield, deliver humanitarian aid and
help evacuate people caught in disasters like Hurricane
Katrina.

The recent Bush administration budget proposal earmarked
$254 million for the new helicopter in fiscal year 2007, which
begins on October 1. It also added a total of $849 million to
the program through 2011, Karas said.

Congress has the final say on defense spending.

“They’re trying to get it in under the wire before defense
spending turns down again,” said Richard Aboulafia, defense
analyst with the Virginia-based Teal Group, when asked about
the Air Force’s accelerated funding plan. “The further along it
is, the harder it is to kill.”