Army tries again on new chopper

Reuters:

Army Secretary Pete Geren said the service had learned important lessons from a canceled $6.2 billion armed reconnaissance helicopter led by Textron Inc Bell Helicopter unit.

"It's a case study in how things can go wrong," Geren said on Tuesday after a speech to the Center for National Policy, a Washington-based think tank.

"There were lessons learned for industry and government," Geren told Reuters after the event. "And we will do better this time." He did not elaborate on how the new program would differ.

The Pentagon canceled the Textron program last month after the cost of each helicopter soared nearly 70 percent to $14.5 million. Chief arms buyer John Young said it would be better to start from scratch than continue the existing program.

The Army is currently seeking industry input for a new Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter (ARH) program that will likely include offers from Boeing Co, Sikorsky Aircraft, a unit of United Technologies Corp, AgustaWestland, a unit of Italy's Finmeccanica and EADS.

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The Army also needs to look at whether its specs for a new chopper are realistic given current technology and engineering. This is not the first chopper program that got canceled because the development cost got away from the Army. Remember that the Comanche was going to be and advanced armored attack helicopter which was canceled around eight years ago. On top of that the performance of the Apache attack helicopters was poor during the major combat operations phase of the Iraq war. Since they have been used in the counterinsurgency phase they have been more effective.

The point is that helicopters have their limits given current technology and engineering. A-10's for example are much more effective against mass tank formations than the Apache. The canceled design was to replace the Army's OH-58D Kiowa Warrior fleet. You would think that would not be as big a challenge as it turned out to be.