'Course, if anyone feels as though they're 'owed' any consideration it'll be Bell, after losing both the KW (to the Apache) and the Creek (to the Lakota). Added to which they now face the prospect of hundreds of singles being
dumped onto the market just when the 505 is about to appear.
Re: Congress, the HASC and SASC both have a habit of significantly re-writing the DoD's funding request in response to lobbying by OEMs in their local district. Hence the regular inclusion of
unrequested funding.
Re: the Koala, the AW119Ke was also ONLY built in Philly. The point made being not that there is a second line (there isn't), but that AW has been considering moving AW119 production to India since 2010. According to
this article from July, they are
still looking at jointly establishing a line locally with Tata, now focused on the AW119Kx.
I/C