15 replies to this topic

[FLY CRJ]

Nice to know our taxes are being spent wisely(sarcasm), ****** government.



AP) The Army has decided to cancel its Comanche helicopter program, a multibillion-dollar project to build a new-generation chopper for armed reconnaissance missions, officials said Monday.

The contractors for Comanche are Boeing Co. and Sikorsky Aircraft Corp.

With about $8 billion already invested in the program, and the production line not yet started, the cancellation is one of the largest in the history of the Army. It follows the Pentagon's decision in 2002 to cancel the Crusader artillery program — against the wishes of Army leaders.

Pentagon officials said a public announcement was planned for Monday afternoon.

Congressional lawmakers and company executives associated with the program were scrambling Monday to figure out the Pentagon's plans.

Sikorsky spokesman Matthew Broder would only say that "we are on track and fully funded until we hear otherwise."

The Sikorsky plant in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where the Comanche is being built, opened last year and employs about 400 workers.

The Comanche has been a target of critics who say it was an expensive mistake.

"The Comanche program has been plagued with wildly unrealistic technological expectations and the bugaboo of pay more and get less. Cancellation of this program would free up funds for weapons that work and meet our country's true national security needs," said Eric Miller of the Project on Government Oversight, a private watchdog group.

Loren Thompson, who follows aviation and other defense issues for the Lexington Institute think tank said he believes the Army under new chief of staff Gen. Peter Schoomaker favors ending the Comanche program, even though the service had been counting on it to provide a new reconnaissance capability.

"The Bush administration has now killed the two biggest Army weapons programs it inherited from the Clinton administration," Thompson said, referring to the Crusader and Comanche.

Earlier this year the White House budget office asked the Pentagon to provide independent reviews of the Comanche and another expensive aviation program, the Air Force's F/A-22 Raptor fighter.

Although killing the Comanche project would save tens of billion in future costs, the cancellation decision is expected to require the Army to pay at least $2 billion in contract termination fees.

The Comanche program was started in 1983 and had survived many reviews. Under a restructuring worked out in 2002, a decision on going ahead with initial low-rate production was to be made in 2007, with the first Comanches delivered to the Army in 2009 and full-rate production to begin in 2010.


By Robert Burns
©MMIV The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

[B737]

  It was such a nice heli too

[funtown34]

I'd say more along the lines of fair... Nice is stretching it too far.

[TeenMaverick]

I saw her in flight twice... 2nd best couple of seconds in my life...

[B737]

funtown34, on Feb 24 2004, 10:13 PM, said:

I'd say more along the lines of fair... Nice is stretching it too far.

IMO she was nice

[flightstar11]

It is a nice lookin heli



sad to see it go, although I think that canceling the project was a good idea.

[Pavehawk]

   Its really too bad...one of the first helicopters to have stealth technology.  The cockpit in the commanche is really amazing.  Sad to see it go like this...

[funtown34]

flightstar11, on Feb 25 2004, 03:21 PM, said:

It is a nice lookin heli

Actually the worst part about it is it's exterior design. Looks like crap. Like Pavehawk said, the cockpit is pretty nice though.

[Julien]

I think it looked pretty cool.....well actually just because it looked futuristic.

Edited by Julien, 28 February 2004 - 10:09 AM.

[TeenMaverick]

the only thing thats cool about it is its nose.

[Pavehawk]

It looked like crap because it had stealth technology...if I were the pilot, I wouldnt really care if it looked like crap, I'd be happy I wasn't showing up on radar...of course, once you go to engage, you lose stealth when you extract the winglets.  Just my opinion.

[UltimatePilotAce]

Too Bad

[evan2]

If you think about it it looks exactly like a helicopter version of the F-117
I am very sad/mad about this cancellation it stood to be the first stealth heli made. Just watch the eurocopter company or somenoe build a heli very similar in design and sell it to one of our allies and then we'll start buying it from them when it should be the other way around

[Pavehawk]

evan2, on Feb 28 2004, 10:33 AM, said:

If you think about it it looks exactly like a helicopter version of the F-117
I am very sad/mad about this cancellation it stood to be the first stealth heli made. Just watch the eurocopter company or somenoe build a heli very similar in design and sell it to one of our allies and then we'll start buying it from them when it should be the other way around

Good point