By Marina Malenic
The Air Force has announced plans for an incremental replacement of its aging UH-1N Huey helicopters, with a contract award possible within two years.
A Dec. 17 presolicitation notice states that the service is seeking up to 93 commercially available helicopters for the Common Vertical Lift Support Platform (CVLSP) program. Each platform must be capable of carrying at least nine passengers, according to the document.
Air Force Space Command operates about 20 Hueys today, all of which were purchased in the 1970s. Their principal mission is ICBM base security, but they also perform search and rescue in the region around the missile fields in Montana, North Dakota and Wyoming. The Air Force maintains another small squadron at Andrews AFB, Md., for airlift around Washington, and the 6th Special Operations Squadron flies a few of the aircraft at Hurlburt Field, Fla.
The Air Force is seeking a helicopter with robust survivability in combat situations, according to the notice. It must be: armored against small arms fire; equipped with electro-optical and infrared sensors, as well as infrared countermeasures; night-vision-goggle ready; equipped with secure satellite communications as well as nonsecure line-of- sight communications links; and armed with sufficient firepower to make it capable of suppressing a “grouped eight-man enemy element in the open.”
The Air Force expects to award a contract as early as fiscal year 2012 and wants at least six aircraft delivered and ready to perform operations by 2015. In the presolicitation notice, the service notes that the compressed timeline could necessitate trade-offs in characteristics.
“We will consider some performance trade-offs to meet schedule at an affordable cost,” the document states.
Although a requirement has existed for the Huey replacements, the service has not been able to carve out funding for them, given its other big-ticket recapitalization projects.
Air Force officials declined to estimate what a CVLSP contract might be worth. The Army is replacing its Huey fleet with 345 UH-72 Lakotas, built by EADS, in a multiyear contract worth approximately $3 billion.
EADS spokesman Guy Hicks said yesterday that the company is reviewing the presolicitation. He added, however, that “it’s a bit premature to speculate about a specific solution.”
Analysts say the Lakota does not meet the range and capacity requirements that the Air Force has put forward, but several other EADS products could fit the bill. AugustaWestland, an Anglo-Italian company, is also seen as a potential contender, according to analysts like Richard Aboulafia at the Teal Group in Fairfax, Va.
Aboulafia also says that Boeing is an unlikely bidder, given the requirements outlined last month.
“Boeing doesn’t really have a squad or medium transport,” he said. “And the V-22 is just too much machine for the job.”
The favorite at this early stage of the game, according to Aboulafia and others, is Sikorsky‘s [UTX] H-60 Hawk. Company spokesman Paul Jackson yesterday confirmed intent to enter the H-60 into the competition.
“We believe it really hits the sweet spot on performance and requirements,” he told Defense Daily. “We also have a hot production line and are ready to meet the Air Force’s needs and timeline.”
Jackson added that only some “minor adjustments” would need to be made to the aircraft to meet the Air Force requirements but he declined to specify.