Assistant Navy Secretary Delores Etter downplayed the report's significance, saying that all aircraft programs struggle with weight and that the Navy is working through those challenges on VH-71.
Some working through!!!!
You reckon this Navy official is regretting these words right now?
Some believe that one outcome of this schedule was to make the competition more
favorable to Lockheed Martin and less favorable to Sikorsky. A Navy spokesman was
quoted as saying “The Lockheed streamlining proposal was selected because it was
judged more likely to meet these government requirements on schedule, with lesser risk,
and at a lower cost....we can’t let the traditional acquisition process impede the need to
meet the President’s security requirements now.”
