Gates Floats Buying Two U.S. Presidential Helos
By JOHN T. BENNETT
Published: 20 May 2009 15:11
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates told a House panel May 20 he wants to explore buying two types of helicopters to replace the ones that now transport the president.
Gates told the House Appropriations defense subcommittee he is intrigued by the notion of buying one helicopter for routine presidential travel and another for emergencies.
Under the idea, one model would carry presidents from the White House to Andrews Air Force Base, Md., where they leave on most Air Force One flights. The second would be an "escape helicopter," Gates said.
The secretary said he only heard about the plan "this morning."
Several subcommittee members peppered Gates with questions about how the Obama administration plans to move forward with the presidential helicopter replacement effort. Gates in April announced he had terminated the current program, known as the VH-71, because of skyrocketing costs and "out-of-control requirements."
Defense analysts say the White House and other federal entities bought several helicopters under the first increment of VH-71, then moved to the planned second batch. Problems occurred, analysts say, because stakeholders kept adding requirements onto the increment-two aircraft.
One subcommittee member, Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., said figures he has reviewed indicate the federal government spent "$3 billion already" on the VH-71 effort.
Gates said he opted to kill the VH-71 effort in part because "it would have taken $13 billion to finish" the planned program.
He called it "a poster child for an acquisition program gone terribly wrong."
The Pentagon plans to spend about $1.2 billion to extend the life of the VH-3 fleet, the helicopters that now fly President Barack Obama and have transported the last handful of commanders in chief.
Gates said the Pentagon likely will not purchase the increment-one VH-71s because they would each cost $485 million if the military bought 23 increment-one helicopters; that cost would rise to $1 billion a copy if the department bought only nine.
Plus, he said, the Pentagon has concluded the increment-one helicopters only have "a 10-year lifespan" and were not designed to have new capabilities added as they age.
Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell told reporters that three entities primarily will drive the effort of designing the new executive helicopters: the White House's military office; the office of the undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics; and the Navy.
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