thedrifter
09-29-06, 08:11 AM
Posted on Thu, Sep. 28, 2006
Navy official ‘pleased’ with progress
By BOB COX
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER
Bell Helicopter has made significant progress in fixing the troubled Marine H-1 helicopter program and is no longer in danger of having the contract canceled, a top Navy official said.
“I’m really pleased with the turnaround the Bell folks have made in the last six to nine months,” Delores Etter, assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition, said in an interview Thursday.
Etter, who had been openly critical of Bell’s performance on the program, was at the company’s Amarillo plant Wednesday as the first two rebuilt H-1 helicopters were turned over to the Marines for testing.
The program, which the Navy in April threatened to cancel over continued delays and cost increases, is now “on track.” Etter said she will endorse continuing the program when it is reviewed next month by the Pentagon’s chief weapons buyer, Ken Krieg, undersecretary of defense for acquisition.
Bell has made major improvements in meeting the production schedule, monitoring progress and holding down costs since the Navy sent a formal complaint to the company in April, threatening to cancel the contract, Etter said.
What’s needed now, she said, is for Bell to meet its production commitments and start delivering helicopters.
“These are helicopters our people in the field need right now,” Etter said. Marine units deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan are extensively using their Vietnam-era Hueys, rapidly adding to the wear, tear and maintenance requirements of the aged aircraft.
The H-1 program, initiated in 1995, was supposed to deliver to the Marines 280 totally remanufactured helicopters — 100 UH-1Y Huey transports and 180 AH-1Z Cobra attack aircraft — for about $3.4 billion.
As is often the case, the Marines changed their requirements for the aircraft several times, and Bell ran into numerous engineering and manufacturing problems, the latest being the difficulty of remanufacturing 25- to 30-year-old aircraft. The program’s budget has more than doubled to $8 billion.
Etter said that although the program needs further improvement in meeting schedules and budgets, she believes that Bell is in position to meet its commitments, both on the helicopter program and on the V-22 Osprey. Both aircraft are being assembled in Amarillo.
“They’ve assured me they could,” Etter said. “But more importantly, they showed me some data” that show Bell is now meeting V-22 production deadlines.
“Bell has done a nice job of turning that program around,” she said. “Quite frankly, that’s what gives me confidence that they can fix the H-1 program.”
Etter visited Lockheed Martin’s assembly plant in Fort Worth on Thursday for a meeting with company officials and military officers of the U.S., United Kingdom and Italy to review progress on the short-takeoff and vertical-landing version of the F-35 joint strike fighter that Lockheed is developing and building in Fort Worth.
The Marines and Britain’s Royal Navy both want that version of the F-35, the most expensive and complicated of the three models planned.
Etter said the Navy and Marines remain committed to buying F-35s, although the timing of those purchases could be affected by tight Pentagon weapons budgets.
The 2007 defense spending bill awaiting final approval in the Senate cuts production funding for the F-35 in 2007 and 2008.
Bob Cox, 817-390-7723
rcox@star-telegram.com
Ellie
Navy official ‘pleased’ with progress
By BOB COX
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER
Bell Helicopter has made significant progress in fixing the troubled Marine H-1 helicopter program and is no longer in danger of having the contract canceled, a top Navy official said.
“I’m really pleased with the turnaround the Bell folks have made in the last six to nine months,” Delores Etter, assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition, said in an interview Thursday.
Etter, who had been openly critical of Bell’s performance on the program, was at the company’s Amarillo plant Wednesday as the first two rebuilt H-1 helicopters were turned over to the Marines for testing.
The program, which the Navy in April threatened to cancel over continued delays and cost increases, is now “on track.” Etter said she will endorse continuing the program when it is reviewed next month by the Pentagon’s chief weapons buyer, Ken Krieg, undersecretary of defense for acquisition.
Bell has made major improvements in meeting the production schedule, monitoring progress and holding down costs since the Navy sent a formal complaint to the company in April, threatening to cancel the contract, Etter said.
What’s needed now, she said, is for Bell to meet its production commitments and start delivering helicopters.
“These are helicopters our people in the field need right now,” Etter said. Marine units deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan are extensively using their Vietnam-era Hueys, rapidly adding to the wear, tear and maintenance requirements of the aged aircraft.
The H-1 program, initiated in 1995, was supposed to deliver to the Marines 280 totally remanufactured helicopters — 100 UH-1Y Huey transports and 180 AH-1Z Cobra attack aircraft — for about $3.4 billion.
As is often the case, the Marines changed their requirements for the aircraft several times, and Bell ran into numerous engineering and manufacturing problems, the latest being the difficulty of remanufacturing 25- to 30-year-old aircraft. The program’s budget has more than doubled to $8 billion.
Etter said that although the program needs further improvement in meeting schedules and budgets, she believes that Bell is in position to meet its commitments, both on the helicopter program and on the V-22 Osprey. Both aircraft are being assembled in Amarillo.
“They’ve assured me they could,” Etter said. “But more importantly, they showed me some data” that show Bell is now meeting V-22 production deadlines.
“Bell has done a nice job of turning that program around,” she said. “Quite frankly, that’s what gives me confidence that they can fix the H-1 program.”
Etter visited Lockheed Martin’s assembly plant in Fort Worth on Thursday for a meeting with company officials and military officers of the U.S., United Kingdom and Italy to review progress on the short-takeoff and vertical-landing version of the F-35 joint strike fighter that Lockheed is developing and building in Fort Worth.
The Marines and Britain’s Royal Navy both want that version of the F-35, the most expensive and complicated of the three models planned.
Etter said the Navy and Marines remain committed to buying F-35s, although the timing of those purchases could be affected by tight Pentagon weapons budgets.
The 2007 defense spending bill awaiting final approval in the Senate cuts production funding for the F-35 in 2007 and 2008.
Bob Cox, 817-390-7723
rcox@star-telegram.com
Ellie