The final version of the fiscal year 2020 defense spending bill, passed by the House on Tuesday, reduces funding for the Army’s Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle (OMFV) development program and boosts production dollars for the newest variant of the CH-47 Chinook helicopter.
Congressional appropriators specifically cut $172.8 million in funds from the OMFV program, which is meant to replace the Bradley fighting vehicle, with calls for greater insight into the program’s lack of competition, and restores an additional $28 million in funding for the CH-47F Block II production.
“Given the significance of the OMFV program in support of Army modernization, it is imperative that the congressional defense committees receive timely schedule and cost information in order to make informed decisions,” lawmakers wrote in the bill’s explanatory statement.
OMFV has faced congressional interest over a lack of competition after General Dynamics [GD] was the only vendor to submit a proposal for the prototyping phase following the Army’s move to disqualify a bid offered by Germany’s Rheinmetall in partnership with Raytheon [RTN] (Defense Daily, Oct. 14).
Lawmakers also stipulated that the $205.6 million included in the FY ’20 appropriations bill for OMFV can only be used for middle tier acquisition prototyping once the Army secretary has provided a briefing to the congressional defense committees on source selection process, the program’s requirements, and an update on the acquisition strategy and program schedule.
The final version of the FY ’20 National Defense Authorization Act also called for quarterly briefings on OMFV from the Army’s top acquisition official to increase oversight of the program (Defense Daily, Dec. 13).
The $46.2 million included in the bill for CH-47 Block II covers production of the helicopters for the conventional force, whereas the Army had included just $18.2 million in its budget request for SOCOM variants.
Army officials included Chinook Block II as one of 186 programs receiving reductions as the service looks to find $33 billion that will be shifted to development of future weapon systems over the next five years.
Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy noted recently that the service’s leadership had received Congressional backing on all but one of the “night court” review decisions, with the CH-47 program as the single outlier.
Funding for the CH-47 Block II effort is intended to cover Boeing’s [BA] effort to get the production line ready and purchase long-lead supply items as the company plans to start building the aircraft in 2021.