Marine One Upgrade Now Looks Less Likely

[OhioChick]

Source: Washington Post

Tuesday, February 24, 2009; Page A05

The prospects for building a new fleet of high-tech presidential helicopters darkened yesterday, after the new commander in chief called the costly Bush administration effort an example of military procurement "gone amok" and said he thinks the existing White House helicopter fleet "seems perfectly adequate."

President Obama's remarks at the opening of a meeting with lawmakers on fiscal responsibility did not rule out finishing the program, now expected to cost more than $11.2 billion, or nearly twice the original estimate. He joked that he has not had a helicopter before, so perhaps "I've been deprived and I -- I didn't know it."

But Obama's disclosure that he had asked Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates to conduct a "thorough review of the helicopter situation" amounted to a shot across the bow of large defense contractors such as Lockheed Martin, the helicopter's manufacturer. In recent years, contractors have experienced multiple cost overruns -- totaling $300 billion on the 95 largest military programs, according to the Government Accountability Office -- without incurring substantial penalty.

Billions of dollars have been spent to develop the VH-71 helicopter fleet, which is meant to replace the iconic Sikorsky Marine One helicopters the White House has used for a quarter-century. But technical problems -- the aircraft weighs too much and is to be outfitted with sophisticated electronic gear that has not yet been developed -- have repeatedly forced the program's restructuring, and in recent months, the Pentagon ordered key work halted to reassess its design and necessity.



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/23/AR2009022302574.html?hpid=moreheadlines

[Robb]

1. Aviation buffs will surely weigh in

...but I seem to recall Sikorskys being just shy of legend in the reliability column? Or am I making that up in my head?

[awoke_in_2003]

9. If I ever have to fly in a helicopter...

I would want it to be a Sikorsky.

[jmowreader]

10. Delete "just shy of" from your comment

[randr]

2. Check this post

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5095965
and supporting article
http://www.alternet.org/audits/127832/is_the_u.s._paying_off_the_italian_government_for_forging_the_niger_documents

[acmavm]

3. This is bullshit. Especially one big lie...

>snip>

Lockheed Martin, the helicopter's manufacturer...

<snip>

Read this:

What did the Berlusconi government get in return for providing the Bush administration with a convenient "smoking gun" to attack Iraq? At the end of the yellowcake trail may be the prestigious contract an Italian firm won to manufacture Marine One -- the fleet of presidential helicopters. In January 2005, the U.S. Navy awarded the contract for the construction of 23 new Marine One helicopters to AgustaWestland. Marketing itself as an Anglo-Italian firm, AgustaWestland is wholly owned by Finmeccanica, Italy's largest defense conglomerate.

The choice of AgustaWestland for Marine One surprised most industry observers because U.S.-based Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. was the heavy favorite. Sikorsky patented the first helicopter design in 1939 and built virtually every president's helicopter since 1957. President Eisenhower regularly flew in a Sikorsky to his Gettysburg farm, and the Sikorsky that Nixon boarded when he resigned from the White House is now being restored for permanent display at the Nixon Library.

Not only did Sikorsky lose, but it lost to a foreign firm that has no problems selling its helicopters to the United States' adversaries. (See side bar, "Choppers for Sale, to Everyone")

As with the yellowcake dossier, the key figure in the Marine One contract is Gianni Castellaneta. When the Pentagon put the Marine One contract out for bid, Castellaneta was deputy chair of Finmeccanica and national security advisor to Prime Minister Berlusconi. By the time the contract was awarded, Castellaneta had been appointed Italy's ambassador to the United States.

Castellaneta proudly told U.S. Italia Weekly, "At noon President Bush received me for the official delivery of credentials. He didn't make me wait a single day. An exceptional courtesy."

Castellaneta's role in obtaining the Marine One contract has never been examined before, but according to Affari Italiani, Italy's first online daily, and disarmo.org, an Italian arms control advocacy group, Castellaneta has long managed the most sensitive dossiers in U.S.-Italian bilateral relations.

When Ambassador Castellaneta was asked about his role, the embassy press officer, Luca Ferrari said, "In his capacity as ambassador, representing all of Italy in the United States, the ambassador does not care to speak any more about Finmeccanica."

"Castellaneta's double role as ambassador and corporate businessman has come under scrutiny at various junctures," says Carlo Bonini, an Italian journalist who has extensively investigated the yellowcake affair. "His duality has inspired animated debate in the Italian Parliament, but due to the absolute majority of seats held by Berlusconi, the matter could never be fully discussed."

With center-left opposition leader Romano Prodi taking the helm of Italy's new government, the newly reconfigured Parliament is expected to open a probe into the "Yellowcake One" affair. For Italians, the main question is whether Berlusconi personally profited from the helicopter deal. For Americans, the question is whether the Bush administration paid the Italians back for providing the false intelligence that helped justify launching the war in Iraq.
http://news.ncmonline.com/news/view_article.html?article_id=e5f90f38b05836fede6d7b5a217b3a40

[JPZenger]

4. Lockhead Martin was front even though they never made helicopters

Lockhead Martin was the front man for this deal, even though they never made a helicopter before.

Yes, this deal was a pay off to the Italian Government to send a couple thousand troops into Iraq for a couple years.

I'm sure King George made all kinds of incredibly expensive secret deals to get token troops from many nations into Iraq.

We need to set an example with some defense contractors - if you don't act responsibly, you are out. I'm sure Sikorsky or Boeing could add modern electronics and defensive measures to an existing platform.

[jmowreader]

11. How big does the president's helicopter have to be?

If the answer is "pretty damn big," Boeing makes the CH-47 Chinook. If our friends at the White House were to call Boeing and tell them, "we need two zero-hour Chinooks for the President right away," Boeing will make them two new shithooks.

[nichomachus]

5. But if McCain had gotten in

the GOP would be demanding he have nothing but the finest helicopter fleet and would call any Democrat who questioned it a terrorist.

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

8. Got that right!

:thumbsup:

[Born_A_Truman]

6. How old is the current fleet?

Safety needs to be addressed but I wonder if that even crossed McCain's mind. This fleet gets quite a workout.

The current helicopters have aging airframes, having entered service with HMX-1 in 1962. VH-3D replaced some VH-3A in 1978, and the remainder of VH-3A were replaced by VH-60N beginning in 1989. Due to the age of the VH-3D, a replacement type is in development, with initial operational capability due by 2008 and full operational capability by no later than 2014.

[onager]

7. Westland, affectionately known as...

"...those bastards from Yeovil" in my corner of the US aerospace industry. My company tried to get some work with them a few years ago on the same helicopter they are flogging as Marine One. No deal. They just listened to a lot of demos, had a lot of meetings, figured out what we were doing, then went off and did their own version. Which is pretty common in the world aerospace industry, admittedly. At least I did OK in the deal, getting to spend a few weeks in the UK on somebody else's money. Also France, with Those Bastards From Toulouse--Aerospatiale.

Further down in the article: The Engineer, another British trade journal, described the chopper as "a re-branded version of the EH-101, already in use in the UK, Italy, Japan and Canada and firmly European in heritage."

The EH-101 is affectionately known as the "Flying Barn." All the Presidential electronic gear should fit into that monster.

Someone else may have better updates, but the world helicopter industry has been interesting since the early 90's, when the Dutch suddenly and mysteriously acquired the AH-64 attack helicopter. I remember an intense competition over that contract. The European companies desperately tried to lock out the U.S., since it was assumed that the first contract in the Netherlands would cause all the other Euro-dominoes to fall the same way. The Dutch deal seemed to come out of nowhere and a lot of people were very pissed off about it. Well, a lot of European people, at least.