The Air Force formally announced Friday it is going with Sikorsky for the potentially $6.8 billion Combat Rescue Helicopter (CRH) program.
“We received one proposal,” Air Force spokeswoman Capt. Erika Yepsen said Friday in an statement. “That offer, from Sikorsky Aircraft Company, has provided an acceptable technical solution.”
 |
| Airman 1st Class Anthony Phillipp inspects the tail of an HH-60 Pave Hawk. Photo: Air Force. |
Sikorsky, a division of United Technologies Corp. [UTX], is teaming with Lockheed Martin [LMT] for CRH. Sikorsky spokesman Frans Jurgens said Friday Lockheed Martin will be the mission systems integrator for the program and that the duo’s offering will be based on Sikorsky’s H-60M Black Hawk platform.
“We’re encouraged that this vital program appears to be moving forward,” Jurgens said in a statement.
Now the only question is when the Air Force will find the funds to award a contract.
“We intend to award a contract based upon budget availability,” Yepsen said. “We are laying the groundwork to award the CRH contract in the second quarter of fiscal year 2014.”
Acting Air Force Secretary Eric Fanning Nov. 18 doused most hopes of a contract award this calendar year.
“I’m hard-pressed to imagine we can afford to start (CRH) that soon,” Fanning told an Air Force Association (AFA) breakfast in Arlington, Va.
Fanning said the services, if given more money, would rather invest in what they have, like readiness and training, rather than start something new.
“I don’t think it’s safe to say (no contract will be awarded this year),” Fanning said. “It’s an important program with a lot of support. But it will be very difficult, again, because of how little money there is for new starts in the upcoming years.”
CRH is an effort to replace the Air Force’s HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopters, also manufactured by Sikorsky. At least four companies, including European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. (EADS), Boeing [BA], Northrop Grumman [NOC] and Bell Helicopter, a division of Textron [TXT], all said within the last year they wouldn’t pursue CRH. Northrop Grumman was to team with AgustaWestland, a division of Finmeccanica (Defense Daily, Dec. 13).