ARH Breaches Nunn-McCurdy Caps
Jul 10, 2008
Michael Bruno and Graham Warwick
The U.S. Army’s Bell ARH-70 Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter (ARH) program has filed a Nunn-McCurdy cost and schedule breach, but the Army’s second-highest general asserts the program already is advancing.
“The key performance parameters for ARH have been validated and revalidated,” said Army Gen. Richard Cody, vice chief of staff. “We have to go through this process by law.”
Cody said the July 9 filing triggers a mandated 60-day review process among the industry team, the Army’s Program Executive Office for Aviation and the Pentagon’s acquisition, technology and logistics office. But the armed service’s need for the new helo remains the same.
“We need an ARH,” Cody said. “We only have 340 Kiowa Warriors. We need over 368 today and we need 520 to fill out our reorganization and modernization.”
ARH is a “key” part of the triad with Apache Block III and manned/unmanned teaming concepts, said the four-star general, set to retire this year. “We need that helicopter, and I hope we get it. We can’t build new Kiowa Warriors,” he said.
Block III will be what Comanche would have been for Future Combat Systems, he further said.
After a program restructuring, the first unit equipped is now planned for July 2011. A Defense Acquisition Board (DAB) meeting once scheduled for July 2 to approve ARH low-rate initial production was pushed back to June 2009 while the DAB instead was asked to bless the restructuring and approve procurement of 10 production-representative test vehicles to keep initial operational test and evaluation on track for June 2010 (Aerospace DAILY, May 5).
Last year the Army looked at alternatives to a Bell model after problems in the program arose. But changes in management and its approach convinced the Army to continue work on the Bell Helicopter Textron model (Aerospace DAILY, Nov. 5, 2007).
Photo: Bell Helicopter
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and
Bell's friends rescue ARH
BOB COX
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER
Bell Helicopter, faced with losing a $4 billion Army helicopter contract, called friends in high places and gained an 11th-hour stay of execution.
A trade publication reported Thursday that Army officials decided to cancel Bell's contract to develop the Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter outright but were overruled after the company received help from political supporters.
Inside Defense reported that acting Army Secretary Pete Geren, a former Democratic congressman from Fort Worth, interceded with his subordinates and gave Bell 30 days to submit a plan to fix the troubled program.
After a high-level meeting of Army officials Tuesday, Assistant Army Secretary Claude Bolton called Bell Chief Executive Richard Millman and told him that the contract was being terminated, according to several sources who declined to be identified because of their relationships with Bell and the Army. Bell officials, believing that they had not gotten a fair hearing, called area politicians. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, called Geren, the sources said.
A spokesman in Hutchison's office declined to comment on the matter. Army officials did not respond to questions.
After Geren weighed in, the Army's aviation program office transmitted a notice to Bell late Wednesday ordering the company to stop work on the program and submit a plan within 30 days "which describes a strategy that maximizes contract performance while minimizing negative cost and schedule impact to the government."
Bell spokesman Mike Cox said company officials are confident that they can address the Army's concerns and retain the contract.
"We are preparing a package that we, Bell, think represents the best path forward on the continued development of the ARH," Cox said. "Bell's commitment to the ARH remains strong."
During the next 30 days, if the Army approves, Cox said that "Bell and several of our key suppliers plan to continue development work at our own [expense]."
Bell won the $210 million contract to develop the ARH in mid-2005 with a proposal to turn its civilian model 407 helicopter into an armed aircraft capable of performing missions now handled by the Army's aging fleet of Bell OH-58D Kiowa Warrior aircraft. Four prototypes have been flown, including one that crashed in Mansfield last month, but development work is more than a year behind schedule and Bell is $100 million or more over budget.
Instead of getting enough aircraft to outfit an operational squadron by fall 2008, the Army now says it would be December 2009. And Bell has said it would lose between $2 million and $4 million per aircraft on the initial 48 helicopters at the contract price.
Brig. Gen. Steven Mundt, the Army's chief of aviation programs, said the service is ready and willing to listen to Bell's suggestions on how it will speed delivery and cut the cost. He said the cost could reach $10 million per aircraft, up from the contract price of $5.5 million for the initial 12 helicopters.
"The operative word is that the Army is 'concerned,'" Mundt said in an interview with Bloomberg News. "We fully support getting this airplane, but we want them to come to us and tell us, no kidding, what we are going to do. If it's not within the limits, we can't continue on that course. We've got to find someplace else to go."
Mundt said Bell Helicopter's contract "absolutely can be" terminated if the company can't make a compelling case.
"Our hope is that Bell is absolutely going to come with Textron and say: 'Hey, guys, sorry for any confusion. We got it. The program is good, and we're moving forward,'" Mundt said, "but we are not going to allow cost escalation like this, schedule escalation like this."
Bell spokesman Cox said the test aircraft "have accumulated over 500 flight hours in less than two years" and have "met several important milestones and won accolades from Army test pilots."
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Now guys, this is the cheaper, "we can get it right now" alternative to the cancelled megabuck Comanche.
If we hadn't cancelled Comanche, it would be rolling off the lines by now; and while a lot of it is sheer absurd overkill, it would have mostly been paid for and ready -- as opposed to having to start the dev cycle all over again....
