VXX & CRH - As you will no doubt recall, but choose not to acknowledge, both VXX and CRH were open tenders, for which a number of company’s expressed an interest and although the wording of the final RFP may well be open to scrutiny on PPRuNe, neither was a Sole-Source tender.
VXX -Sole source ($5.8B)
– Wrong (As I recall RFI offerings were submitted by AW/Boeing, Bell/Boeing, Boeing & SAC/LM, although I believe only SAC/LM responded to the RFP).
CRH - Sole source ($9.8B)
– Wrong again (As I recall RFI offerings were submitted by Bell, Bell/Boeing, Boeing, Eurocopter, NG/AW & SAC/LM, although again only SAC/LM responded to the RFP).
Army Trainer - Sole source ($1.0B)
– Possibly, but under current DoD funding restrictions, just maybe it is the best of the options on the table for the US Army.
Oh wait the UK MoD just awarded a huge contract to Boeing for Chinooks so your sarcasm was completely wasted....
Quite the contrary, you just haven’t done your homework before posting.
The UK MoD/JHC needed to improve battlefield ‘
Heavy Lift’ and as the RAF already had 46 Chinooks in inventory, and noting the requirements of FF2020 to reduce helicopter types in service, just what other ‘Heavy Lift’ platform did you expect the UK to buy?
In the 50,000lb category, Boeing is laughing all the way to the bank as there is currently nothing else out there to compete, and do you really think the MoD is going to opt for a mix and procure a batch of 53K’s or Mi-26’s, with 30 plus years of sterling service with the CH47, and with it being the #1 helicopter of choice in the MoD’s inventory?
Future Force 2020 was the brainchild of the 2010 SDSR and with regards to rotary wing capability and noting the need to reduce defence spending (much like the DoD), the MoD decided upon a more affordable structure and as such it was decided to reduce the number of rotary wing platforms in service to essentially a mix of Apache, Chinook, Merlin, Wildcat and in part the Puma helicopters, which roughly figure in type and role as follows:
Apache = Attack
Chinook =
Heavy lift
Merlin = CHF Medium lift (Littoral/Maritime) & RN ASW
Puma = Medium Lift (Battlefield)
Wildcat = Maritime (SCMR/LAH) & Land (BRH).
So guess again on the Chinook procurement reasoning.
And yes you are quite right in that having fewer platform types can have its disadvantages.