Posted on 05/10/2014 7:05:22 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
The Department of Defense awarded a contract on Wednesday to a Connecticut company that will build a fleet of helicopters to replace the Marine One fleet that ferries U.S. presidents short distances.
The contract, given to Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation, will cost an initial $1,244,677,064 'for the engineering and manufacturing development phase of the Presidential Helicopter Replacement program.' For that price the U.S. Navy will get six test aircraft and all the necessary research & development.
The Pentagon made a similar attempt to replace the aging fleet of Sikorsky choppers, spending $3.2 billion on a landing pad to nowhere.
Adding in the likely $17 billion price tag for the new project – a number estimated by the Congressional Budget Office – the $20 billion total makes the fleet the most expensive helicopters ever built.
The CBO reports that the projected cost also 'does not include costs to keep the 19 existing presidential helicopters in operation until they are replaced by new helicopters.'
During a White House fiscal responsibility summit a month after President Barack Obama took office, Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain mocked the boondoggle helicopter upgrade project that was later shelved.
'Your helicopter is now going to cost as much as Air Force One,' McCain said. 'I don't think there's any more graphic demonstration of how good ideas have cost taxpayers an enormous amount of money.'(continued)
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
You know, a lot of countries you've heard of don't spend that much on their ENTIRE military.
He really DOES think he is KING!
That is nearly 1 Billion per helicopter.
Sorry, but that is not justifiable for any president.
You mean emperor, and yes, he kinda is. Show me where someone has seriously stood up to him and thwarted anything he really wanted.
“..his private fleet...2022”.
Take that as a warning folks.
This is absolutely insane to spend this kind of money on this.
This has to be yet another big payoff to, and/or ripoff by, some political comrades of the administration. Unless those copters are made entirely out of gold?
One of the versions of this helo had a kitchen on board. Yes. A kitchen.
I’m happy to let him have a new copter if he needs one but this is ridiculous
we’d be better off spending 20 billion shipping this jackwad to the moon.
of course i have a 50 cent solution too.
Of course, we need to borrow more from China, don’t we? China needs to buy more of USA.
1 billion ought to buy a real Airwolf type helicopter or two.
It’s about time they replaced those junky old choppers.
I’m guessing the new ones will have wider doors.
LMAO
For half that, both Boeing and Airbus sell airplanes that will carry 500 people nearly half-way around the world.
A gigabuck per helicopter?
Someone’s campaign contributions are being repaid many times over.
The red star is right on, but you should have also added a green star and crescent to state his true religion.
O.K.- I don’t have time right now to research this mc caskill wench but I’ll bet if somebody checks we will find out that she has stolen WAY more that what the NG has spent.
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National Guard NASCAR sponsorship examined by Congress:
The National Guard spent $26.5 million to sponsor NASCAR racing in 2012 to bolster its marketing and recruitment but failed to sign up a single new soldier to its ranks, according to data provided to USA Today. Even though the Guard spent $88 million as a NASCAR sponsor from 2011 to 2013, it is unclear how many new recruits, if any, signed up because of it, according to documents. The Guard on Wednesday would not confirm the figures on prospects and recruits developed through its NASCAR sponsorship.
Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., who will hold a hearing on the recruitment program Thursday, assailed the Guard for “wasting a bunch of money on a very expensive sports sponsorship.” The Guard received 24,800 recruiting prospects from the program in 2012, documents show. In those cases, potential recruits indicated the NASCAR affiliation prompted them to seek more information about joining. Of that group, only 20 met the Guard’s qualifications for entry into the service, and not one of them joined. In 2013, the number of prospects associated with NASCAR dropped to 7,500, according to briefing materials for the Senate subcommittee on Financial and Contracting Oversight led by McCaskill.
The National Guard needs 1 million leads to meet its annual recruiting goal of 50,000 soldiers. The NASCAR initiative, along with the $38 million spent on an IndyCar racing sponsorship, over the same period, will be the target of the hearing led by McCaskill.
Rick Breitenfeldt, a National Guard spokesman, said 90% of Army National Guard soldiers who enlisted or re-enlisted from 2007 to 2013 indicated that they had been exposed to information about the service through NASCAR-related recruiting and retention materials. Sponsoring NASCAR and driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. puts the Guard’s name in front of 77 million fans, he said.(USA Today)(5-7-2014)
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