Boeing [BA] is awaiting the results of a new Defense Department analysis of the military’s combat search-and-rescue (CSAR) helicopter needs to determine whether it will again bid its CH-47 Chinook or will instead put its money on the V-22 Osprey when the Pentagon reopens the contest.
The department is expected to release new requirements for a CSAR-X replacement helicopter by September. Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced a decision in April to terminate the Air Force effort to replace its aging HH-60 Pave Hawk fleet and instead examine all the services’ needs for a joint capability.
The Pentagon’s top weapons buyer, Ashton Carter, canceled the $15 billion program last month. Boeing won the initial contract three years ago, but the competition was reopened after losing bidders Lockheed Martin [LMT] and Sikorsky [UTX] twice filed protests that were sustained by the Government Accountability Office.
Gates “directed the director, Program Analysis & Evaluation, and the Joint Staff, in coordination with the military departments, to re-evaluate the CSAR-X requirements in the context of the joint forces’ capabilities and provide a report by Sept. 1, describing the requirements for a replacement CSAR-X aircraft,” reads a memo issued by Carter on May 28.
Mark Ballew, Boeing’s manager for tandem rotor helicopters, said those new requirements will determine which rotorcraft the company will bid for the project.
“We’ll see what happens when they release that information in September,” he told reporters at a briefing in Arlington, Va.
Ballew said that if Pentagon brass decide to impose far greater speed and range requirements, the company will submit the Osprey.
“No other rotorcraft can match it in speed and range,” he said.
However, if flying at high altitudes is still a major goal for the program, the Chinook will again be Boeing’s candidate. Its ability to fly the “high/hot” missions in the mountains of Afghanistan was one of the Chinook’s biggest selling points in the last round of competition.
Meanwhile, to keep its current CSAR fleet of Sikorsky [UTX] HH-60 helicopters fully capable, the Air Force is requesting $90 million to purchase two new HH-60Ms in Fiscal Year 2010. And in the unfunded wish list it submitted to Congress, the service asks for $1 million apiece for 81 Forward Looking Infra-Red (FLIR) system kits to equip the 1980s-vintage helicopters with night, low illumination and adverse weather capabilities.
John Young, Carter’s predecessor, questioned the need for a dedicated single-service platform for combat rescue missions. Instead, Gates is asking all the services to carefully review the new requirements. The Air Force, however, will remain the lead service for the procurement effort.