RIDLEY PARK, Pa.–The production lines and suppliers Boeing [BA] already has in place for manufacturing the Army’s Chinook helicopters will make its Combat, Search and Rescue (CSAR-X) helicopter offering a better value for the Air Force than that of its competitors, company representatives said this week.
“We already have the supply base in place,” Rick Lemaster, Boeing program manager for CSAR-X, told sister publication Defense Daily in an Aug. 5 interview the company’s manufacturing facility here.
“We are building three aircraft per month right now,” he added, “and we would need to add approximately one and a half aircraft to that rate in order to build the CSAR fleet.”
Mark Ballew, a Boeing senior manager for the Chinook program, said an established line and product would also yield a more reliable cost estimate for the Air Force.
“I can give you a more accurate assessment about what the true cost of the program is going to be over time,” said Ballew. “Unlike starting up a new [production] line and maybe encountering difficulties down the road, as [Defense Department] programs sometimes do, this is a program that has been established over 47 years and is reliable. That means extremely low risk.”
The Army’s current Chinook fleet numbers just over 400 aircraft. Boeing is on contract to provide another 59, but Ballew noted that a five-year production contract is pending congressional approval in the coming weeks. Army officials have previously said the contract would be for 190 aircraft–113 new builds and 139 upgrades of existing aircraft.
Further, the Chinook variant Boeing is offering to the Air Force for CSAR is about 85 percent common with the G model currently flown by Special Operations. Its fuel tank is twice as large as that of the older F model that currently makes up the bulk of the Army fleet. The major differences in the CSAR variant, according to Ballew, are a third power generator to support environmental controls, a de-icing system for the rotorblades and a slightly larger cabin door.
Meanwhile, Boeing and its competitors are all preparing for a final Air Force debriefing on the competition later this month.
Asked about possible final changes to the Boeing proposal, Lemaster said price is an area that could see a revision.
“I suspect we’ll probably do something on cost,” he said.
According to a February 2007 Government Accountability Office report, the Lockheed Martin, Sikorsky and Boeing per-unit costs have been pegged at $35.9 million, $38.5 million and $38.6 million, respectively.
Lemaster also noted that “additional ballistic protection” is planned for the Boeing aircraft, though he would not elaborate. Briefing slides provided to sister publication Defense Daily note the incorporation of a “ballistic projectile approach warning system” and “optical counter measures” in the Block 10 configuration.
Lemaster said the most significant difference between the Block 0 and Block 10 CSAR-X configurations Boeing intends to produce would be the shape of the rotor blades.
“There will be a new design at that point,” he said. “Beyond that, this late in the game, you’re sort of shooting in the dark to provide value but not additional risk.”
The Air Force last week wrapped up a question-and-answer period that it will use to refine its request for proposals (RFP) for the $15 billion competition. Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Sikorsky are each expected to receive an interim evaluation briefing from Air Force acquisition officials later this month to discuss the final RFP (Defense Daily, Aug. 4).
Lockheed Martin is proposing the HH-71, and Sikorsky is bidding its HH-92. The contractors submitted their latest proposals in January. Boeing initially won the contract for 141 aircraft in November 2006. Lockheed Martin and Sikorsky twice filed protests with the Government Accountability Office, forcing the Air Force to reopen the competition. The GAO sustained the second protest in August 2007. As a result, the program experienced a 9-12 month delay in contract award and a likely slip of Initial Operating Capability from fourth quarter of FY 2012 to fourth quarter of FY 2013.
The Air Force debriefing later this month will include information on mission capability, proposal risk, past performance, and cost/price factors (Defense Daily, April 14). It will be based on the service’s evaluation of the proposals and the competitors’ answers to the questions posed during the evaluation notice process.
A contract award could be made in the coming months. Air Force spokeswoman Lt. Col. Karen Platt said last week that the service would still “like to award a contract sometime in the fall.”
However, the Pentagon Inspector General is still investigating possible selection process irregularities, and service and Pentagon acquisition officials remain focused on resolving the KC-X aerial refueling tanker acquisition, another contested contract (Defense Daily, July 11). Both issues, as well as the coming change of administrations, could delay the CSAR-X award.