The Army is on schedule to award in May a second multi-year (MYII) production contract for the CH-47F heavy-lift helicopter to prime contractor Boeing [BA], program officials said.
“Everyone wants more of them sooner” is what program office and contractor personnel hear from after action reviews with returning deployed units, and from interested foreign military sales customers. The CH-47F is often called: “The ultimate machine.”
“Working with Boeing we achieved our negotiating settlement in December, it was about $810 million in savings over the (Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation) CAPE’s single year estimate so that worked out to about 19.2 percent savings,” Col. Robert “Bob” Marion, project manager, Cargo Helicopters, told reporters from the Army Aviation Association of America in Fort Worth, Texas.
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| CH-47F Courtesy of Boeing |
Some of those savings were driven by the more than $130 million Boeing invested in renovating and improving Chinook production facilities, said Mark Ballew, business development, director for Vertical Lift Tiltrotor & Cargo Helicopter Programs, Boeing. “Last year, we delivered 59 aircraft out of the factory and that’s due in part to working with our supplier teammates and what’s going on in the factory.”
The MY II effort moved forward once the president signed the Continuing Resolution, which included the defense appropriations bill.
A little over a year ago DoD certified the MY II program was the solution for an efficient and effective program (Defense Daily, April 6, 2012). MYI has produced some $400 million in savings, and the government-contractor team was honored for it in October 2012.
Product Manager Lt. Col. Michael “Reese” Hauenstein said F models were fielded to about half the Army under the first multi-year contract. “With the second multi-year contract, we should be able to field the second half of the units.
The MYII contract is actually a configuration update, Marion said, and will include some 30 modifications. It will be followed by a Block II, which will be the next upgrade.
At this point, the Army wants a total of 464 CH-47Fs, Hauenstein said. That consists of 29 units equipped with CH-47F rotorcraft, the total number of full-up modified table of organization and equipment (MTOE) units. Those units consist of 13 active Army units, 13 National Guard units and three Reserve units. “In addition, we are fielding the smaller unit in Honduras, as well as other locations for institutional flight training and flight testing.”
Ballew said in an earlier interview with Defense Daily that it takes about 30 months from contract award to aircraft, and Boeing is already buying long-lead items and doing some engineering work.
“In between multiyear I and II we’ve got a bridge contract, where we’ll have one production representative multiyear II aircraft coming through the line,” Hauenstein said. That aircraft will allow the office to work out any issues. Australian Chinooks are included in the bridge contract.
Actual MYII aircraft will be coming off the line in 2015, he said. “We’re looking to get about 155 of those with options of 60 more.”
Marion said there are about 14 additional aircraft, one a U.S. government aircraft, on the bridge contract and those are MYII-configured aircraft that will provide some risk reduction for the MYII aircraft to come.
“There’s no slowdown or break in production–we maintain consistent production all the way through,” from MYI through the bridge contract into MYII, Ballew said.
MYII consists of 155 aircraft consisting of 121 renews and 34 new builds and the remaining 60 are option aircraft, mainly for foreign military sales opportunities, he said.
Of the 60 option aircraft, 16 are slated either for the United Arab Emirates or Turkey, Hauenstein said.
Of note is that all the aircraft under the MYII contract, for the United States and foreign customers, are F models, which makes it easier to make any adjustments required when sequestration or other budget cuts come, Marion said.
The Army’s fiscal year 2014 budget, released earlier this week supports $1.4 billion for the Chinook program for 38 aircraft: six new and 22 remanufactured aircraft. The funds also provide for 10 battle loss replacements and modifications. Neither sequestration nor overseas contingency operation funding was included in the budget.
Marion said the budget offered: “No real surprise to us from a Cargo perspective…we’re not going to have any issues in executing our multiyear with the numbers that came out.”
Essentially the program has no issues, and is on track, Marion said.