FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE
Contact: Adriana Surfas
Thursday, May 1,
2008
(202) 225-3661
DeLauro
Praises Marine-One Provision in Defense Authorization
Because
of Congressional concern over the mounting difficulties with the program, the
Senate Armed Services Committee recommended withholding funds for the program
until the Navy submits a comprehensive detailing of the cost overruns for the
VH-71 helicopter program. Last year, Congress put the Pentagon on
notice, significantly cutting funding for the program.
“The
effort to modernize Marine-One has veered horribly off-course.
Unfortunately, the Administration seems content to allow the American taxpayer
to shoulder the results – the significant cost overruns. In light of
this, the additional requirements and the delivery delays, I applaud my
colleagues in the Senate for halting funding for this program before we have
sunk too much into it. I urge the House Armed Services Committee to take
similar steps to address the Pentagon’s broken procurement system when they
move the Defense Authorization in the coming weeks,” said DeLauro. “Given
the reality of budgetary pressures and the ineptitude that has accompanied the
modernization effort to date, we must act now to get the VH-71 Presidential
helicopter program back on-track and that means the program must be rebid.”
In
March, Pentagon Undersecretary for Acquisition John Young
acknowledged the sizeable cost overruns, stating that the cost estimate for the
VH-71 Presidential Helicopter program had grown to $7.5 billion from $4.5
billion and costs for the first phase of an interim model have grown to $3.7
billion from $2.3 billion. Under
the Nunn-McCurdy law, the Defense Secretary must report to Congress when a
program faces cost overruns of 25 percent.
DeLauro added, “While Sikorsky built the Marine One Helicopter for over five decades and has over seventy years experience designing and building helicopters, Lockheed has never been in the business of building helicopters from the ground up and AugustaWestland, the British Company to whom the contract was awarded, has seen the British and Canadian Air Forces ground their version of the EH-101. This contract needs to be rebid.
In 2005, the contract to build Marine-One was awarded to the British-Italian Company of AgustaWestland-Finmeccanica, in tandem with Lockheed Martin, despite serious security, safety and financial concerns, as well as warnings about the impact on American jobs and the manufacturing industry. At the time of the bid, the AugustaWestland helicopter entry, the EH-101, was not certified for flight in the U.S. by the Federal Aviation Administration and the year prior, both the Canadian Air Force and the British Air Force grounded their versions of the EH-101 after a fatal crash of one helicopter and cracks were discovered in the tail rotors of several others.
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