May Fund Development Work To Keep Industry Viable

A Pentagon official said in a speech Wednesday that the military may spend money on preliminary design work for a new military helicopter in the next year or two in an effort to be sure the United States does not lose critical design capability.

Defense Undersecretary Frank Kendall (pictured) said at a Credit Suisse investor conference that "we really need to do something in some cases to preserve our design teams, which once they're gone away, are very hard to bring back."

Reuters reports that Kendall said the defense department could fund an initiative that will study long-term needs in the rotary wing sector along the lines of a similar effort looking into what might follow the F-22 and F-35 programs. He said such an effort would "reduce the lead time to the next product," while preserving industrial capacity.

While the Air Force and the Navy have both opened competitions for helicopter programs, each is considering a variant of an existing aircraft, not a "clean sheet" design. The Army is also mulling a follow-on aircraft to the Kiowa Warrior, but a decision has not been made as to whether to extend the life of the OH-58 or develop a new aircraft.

Kendall said that the Army believes there is room in its budget for procurement of a new helicopter, but that would be dependant on funding levels going forward ... which is far from certain in the current environment.

FMI: www.defense.gov