Air Force Officials Announce Helicopter Acquisition Strategy

Air Force officials announced their strategy here April 25 to recapitalize the Air Force's helicopter fleet, which is critical to nuclear weapon security response, continuity of government, and combat search and rescue. The Air Force secretary and chief of staff have directed that the service proceed with full and open competition for both the Common Vertical Lift Support Platform program and the HH-60 recapitalization program. These two programs will hold separate competitions using their respective capability development documents approved by the joint requirements oversight council to meet warfighter requirements. "The Air Force ultimately benefits from competition and allows industry to fully play in these acquisition programs," said Maj. Gen. Randal D. Fullhart, the global reach programs capability director. "We anticipate, based on market research and industry response to requests for information, that a derivative of helicopters already in production will be able to meet warfighter requirements." The CVLSP program fills identified capability gaps while replacing the current Air Force UH-1N Huey fleet, in which service officials noted deficiencies in carrying capacity, speed, range, endurance and survivability, General Fullhart said. The Air Force announced plans to hold a competition for 93 new helicopters to protect domestic nuclear missile fields after it was stung by a barrage of criticism from POGO and others for flirting with sole-sourcing the contract using an obscure 1932 law. “There are a number of manufacturers who have products we believe can meet Air Force needs and we think it’s fair that all of them have a chance to fulfill that requirement,” Dave Van Buren, Air Force senior acquisition executive, said in an interview with Bloomberg News’s Tony Capaccio.