NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Boeing [BA] is confident Congress will once again add additional funding for fiscal year 2024 to produce a small number of CH-47F Block II Chinook heavy-lift aircraft while the Army nears its decision on moving to full-rate production, a lead program official said Thursday.
“Affirmative, yes,” Ken Eland, Boeing’s vice president and H-47 program manager, said when asked whether the company expects another congressional plus-up in FY ‘24 for CH-47F Block II. “We’ve talked through with [Congress] that four aircraft a year right now, transitionally, is a number that we’ll stand behind. It’s not asking Congress for too much additional funding.”
Eland told reporters during a discussion at the Army Aviation Mission Solutions Summit in Nashville the company is eyeing a Milestone C decision from the Army on CH-47F Block II for FY ‘25 but is “apprehensive” if it’s pushed into FY ‘26 or later.
“It perpetuates the inefficiency that we’re seeing throughout our efforts and the supply base efforts,” Eland said of a potential delayed Milestone C decision. “I’m not optimistic that it’s going to happen any sooner. We’re a little apprehensive that it might happen a little bit later.”
“We view that as a ‘when do they move forward’ with doing something with Chinook, not sort of ‘if [they do something].’ There is really no other heavy lift choice for them. So it’s just a question of when does it fit into the affordability of the total Army aviation portfolio,” Eland added. “When we look at it, it makes sense to us that [the decision] will be in FY ‘25 or possibly even slipping into FY ‘26. But we’ve laid out that we’d like to see it in FY ‘25.”
The Army has not included funding for CH-47F Block II in its recent budget requests, as it assesses the path forward for the program, while Congress has added funds in final appropriations bills covering a few aircraft to sustain what Eland called a “minimum sustainable rate” for the upgraded aircraft.
“I tell folks, it’s not what you want. It’s defined as ‘minimum sustainable’ for a reason, right? That’s what you need to just sustain, to be able to live,” Eland said.
Doug Bush, the Army’s top acquisition official, was asked during a House Armed Services Tactical Air and Land Forces Subcommittee hearing last week about the Army once again only requesting funding for six MH-47G helicopters, the Special Operations variant of the platform, and the service’s plan for finalizing a direction on CH-47F Block II.
“Certainly, you’ve seen the plus-ups to try to keep this thing moving along over the past few years. Congress, I think, was right in doing it,” Rep. Donald Norcross (D-N.J.), the subcommittee’s ranking member, said during the hearing last Wednesday. “We understand [you need] time to make the decision. But, certainly, given the lack of a workforce across the nation, we want to make sure this keeps going.”
Bush told the panel a decision on the path forward for CH-47F Block II should be made in 2023 which would be implemented for the FY ‘25 budget cycle.
“The Army does recognize the importance of that industrial base and especially the human capital aspect of it. It’s vital,” Bush said. “But I think at this time it’s a question of balancing resources across the entire Army. That is the question in front of senior Army leaders with regard to where this falls in that mix.”
Eland noted the first CH-47F Block II was loaded into final assembly in March, with the first deliveries of low-rate initial production aircraft to the Army set to begin in February 2024.
“You’re not going to take the F-Model Block I aircraft out to 2060. There’s all this time and energy invested in this advanced capability that’s on the table ready to go. There’s 800 flight test hours on it. There’s 3,200 data points to support it, meaning all of the requirements. So it’s there and ready to go,” Eland said.
Bush during the hearing last week cited international interest in the CH-47F Block II as a key factor for additional production opportunities, specifically noting Germany’s intent to purchase 60 of the aircraft (Defense Daily, June 1 2022).
“One thing that has changed is the good news that the German military has decided to buy the CH-47, approximately 70 or more aircraft, around that number, which gives us an opportunity to retain that workforce whichever direction the Army ultimately goes. It buys us some more time,” Bush said.