In the period since the first contract was signed in 2004, there have been two amendments to the ISS contract that brought it up to $3.4 billion from the original $3.2 billion. The new deal raises the ISS contract value to $5.7 billion (i.e. a $2.3 billion increase).
With that new math, I nevertheless agree that there is definitely the appearance of a whitewash especially when one considers that there has been nothing "in service" to support yet; delivery and acceptance of the first interim Block 1 aircraft is now not scheduled until June 2015 and, reading between the lines, Sikorsky will then presumably begin to start providing some limited ISS during the limited OT&E that can conducted with the interim capability.
With delivery of the first "full capability" (a reduced capability compared to the 2004 contract) aircraft now targeted for June 2018, that is when the full ISS is supposed to kick in.
So, in my view, the revised ISS deal is either a reward for Sikorsky's non-performance to date, or a carrot for Sikorsky so that it would not abandon what UTC has very publicly branded a money-losing contract.
And we were all told back in 2003 that this was to be a "lowest cost compliant off-the-shelf" procurement... if you check the news releases from 2004 you will find that the Cyclone was the lowest cost of the two contenders, had been determined to be 100% compliant with the Canadian performance and equipment requirements, required only minimal development to be navalized and that Sikorsky had demonstrated that it could easily deliver the product by 2008.
