Originally Posted by
Stinger10
LONE-
Frustration.
In honesty, I share it. I am (for my own reasons) disappointed that the Presidential fleet has not been upgraded in the case of Marine 1. We have a robust rotary wing industry, and when it comes to systems integration some awesome capability on the national level. And even if the better offer is the Merlin variant, that too comes from a solid background in rotary wing production.
It just accurately and factually describes the situation so not sure why its considered noise?
It's root is political. What in politics isn't hypocrisy? The older I get, the more cynical about it I become.
As for my stock in AW...... I have had the good fortune to fly just about everything rotary-wing (except V-22) including the S-92. The 101 is one of the best a aircraft I have ever flown. Proven itself in combat in very tough places. What happened to it, and how it was slandered, not to mention a complete waste of $3B tax payer money, has never sat right with me. Never will.
Not the first program to make a meal out of itself. I suppose it's wishful thinking that it will be the last. (glances nervously at the F-35 thread ...). Let's see, how many billions finally went into A-12 before that program went south? The comparison isn't very apt, as A-12 was a lot of new stuff and VH replacement was a proven bird with a whole lotta stuff for a mod.
I agree the VH-3 absolutely has to be replaced immediately. It's never going back to an AW101 either, but you cannot reward bad behavior by letting things just slip by without comment.
I'll suggest that the root of the behavior lies in Congress, but I also think a few folks in DoD, DoN, and NAVAIR made errors our system is supposed to be able to identify and correct. It's not like "requirements creep" is a new term as of five years ago.
That the cabin is made in India is well beyond the matter of how the VH replacement program self immolated. I try not to take rhetoric as substance, though that "buy America" meme can have some interesting detail behind the bumper sticker, not all of it pretty.