Navy Officially Terminates VH-71
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Bettina H. Chavanne chavanne@aviationweek.com
The Department of Defense and U.S. Naval Air Systems Command announced the official cancellation of the VH-71 Presidential Helicopter program late Monday.
Earlier that afternoon, a brief appeared and then was removed from NAVAIR's website announcing the cancellation. The link to the announcement was broken, however, and calls to Navy Public Affairs went unanswered.
Hours later, both the Department of Defense and NAVAIR issued official word that the program has been formally terminated with Lockheed Martin Systems Integration in Owego, N.Y. The company was awarded the program in January 2005, and has delivered eight Increment One aircraft to the Navy. A ninth is being flown by Lockheed for testing.
A program acquisition decision memorandum was issued May 15, 2009, directing the cancellation of the program. That decision, according to NAVAIR's statement "resulted from cost growth in the VH-71 program that breached Nunn-McCurdy thresholds."
The Pentagon's new acquisitions chief, Ashton Carter, has asked the Navy to develop options for a replacement helicopter and present those to his office. The President's budget for fiscal 2010 contains funds for service life extension of the current VH-60N/VH-3D fleet. Termination costs are unknown at this time, and Lockheed has a full year to submit a proposal for a settlement.
Photo credit: Lockheed Martin
