The Defense Department has come up with 17 potential “types and mixes” of platforms for a new Presidential Helicopter acquisition effort that could be launched as early as next spring, the department’s top weapons buyer recently said.
The 17 options–narrowed from 48 that the Pentagon had been examining–are “the intermediate number of alternative program approaches that we identified–different types of helicopters and different mixes of helicopters,” Ashton Carter, the under secretary for acquisition, technology and logistics, told reporters at the Pentagon on Nov. 23.
Carter reiterated that the department prefers to work with an existing helicopter design instead of designing a new platform to meet the White House’s specifications.
“Obviously, for affordability’s sake, one would like to be able to identify and adapt an existing helicopter rather than start all over,” he said.
Each of the 17 remaining solutions being considered would cost “a lot less” than the canceled VH-71, he added.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates terminated the $13 billion VH-71 program in April. The program was plagued with cost overruns, which the Pentagon blamed on the accumulation of platform specifications late in the development effort.
“We can’t let that happen next time,” said Carter.
The department is now in talks with the White House officials to explain the tradeoffs among its 17 possible approaches, according to Carter.