Originally Posted by
Commando Cody
Their big drawback as far as Washington is concerned is that although they pay off big time in the end, they have a funding "bulge" at the front end to have the flyoff.
Oh yeah. It got even worse in the 90's as the whole budget shrank and APN 1 programs became scarce.
As I remember it, Navy piggy backed onto the Army Blackhawk Multi Year contract to get CH-60 S built to replace the Phrog(or at least to me that program forward) as the downstream effect of the infamous "Helo Master Plan".
NAVIAR was more or less forced into the "remanufacture of B/F{1}" Seahawks for the R since the "make it new" money wasn't going to be available for mere helicopters (and the Seahawks by then were beginning to show a little of that "ridden hard and put away wet" as a result of how much they got flown).
As I remember it, F-18E/F and E2 upgrades got the "new stuff" money. A-12 was long since dead.
JSF was still in the 'figure it out' stage and got money.
({1} I remember a few conversations with people about that approach having holes in it, and as it worked out, those holes didn't line up...).
Good grief, has it been a quarter of a century ago?
