미 대통령 전용헬기사업 재추진 계획, US Presidential Helo may again...

 

지난 4월 눈덩이 처럼 불어나는 사업비로 인해 취소 결정이 내려졌던 미 대통령 전용헬기사업이 재추진 될 것이라는 소식입니다.

현재 미 국방성에서 당초 48대 도입 규모에서 대폭 축소된 17대를 도입하는 안으로 백악관과 협의에 들어갈 거라는 내용입니다.

도입 기종 역시 원점에서 재검토 할 계획이라 합니다.

 

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  VH-71 PP-1 (© Lockheed Martin)

 

DoD Narrows Presidential Helo Buy To 17 Possible 'Program Approaches'

Defense Daily    11/30/2009

Author: Marina Malenic

 

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 said last week.

 

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.