Posted on 05/02/2017 7:34:29 PM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
This is exactly what the Army should do, but won't because the merchants of war that drive the acquisition machine expect a higher profit margin from a brand new, "state of the art" platform.
Comanche, Arapaho, AAS, and the next Army aviation program to be cancelled will be . . . .
It is the governments way to replace a $1Million Jet Ranger with a $35Million Apache.
It is the governments way to replace a $1Million Jet Ranger with a $35Million Apache.
Put it to the military industrial complex that Eisenhower warned of over a half century ago. Order a batch of combat proven Tigers. That should bring down the price of new American copters.
Well...all I can say after looking over this cluster**** is that some Army personnel ought to hang for treason for “retiring” the Kiowas. To lose a functional capability with no replacement in sight is unacceptable.
Please chime in if you have a different opinion. :-)
No, this is not a cluster*****. Rather, this is exactly the results expected and wanted by Obama’s gender friendly and touchie feelie career advancement plans for our military. The Army has made eight years of stupid decisions that are right in line with Obama’s wishes. Unfortunately, the same is true of the other services, especially the USAF.
500 likes, if FR had such an option.
This is what bothers me about Trump crowing that there is going to be more defense spending. They waste the money they get now. The Pentagon as a few billion dollars somewhere that they “lost”. The procurement system has been so politicized that is has very little to do with what the military wants or needs.
I began work at Bell in ‘65 and left Dec. 2001. From ‘67 until I left I was in a salaried professional position and my last 22 years were in management.
I spent most of 6 months on a should-cost team funded by an Army contract. We were TDY to a major subcontractor in CA that furnished the MMS system (the big ball on top of the mast on the OH-58D, as shown in photo above).
The team had knowledgeable people in various disciplines. I reduced the contractors bid price by 30% in my discipline alone and other team members found reductions in theirs.
The contractor was including manhours, travel, etc., in their bid for VPs, Directors and other personnel who did not even directly work on the contract in question. Their management oversight included other contracts, as well.
That’s one example of how military contracts receive such high bids. In this case, someone in Army Procurement must have recognized it seemed too high, an thus the should-cost effort.
Also, consider how many retired senior military officers are employed by military contractors, AFTER having influenced procurement of their overpriced products.
Thanks for your service during some really dicey years.
This article is about the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior though, not the early ‘58s that were slicks and had smaller engines, etc.
Amen brother. Spent many an hour in the OH-06. The best and most nimble observation helo the Army has ever had. We transitioned to the OH-58 just after I left VN. The first day we lost five of them. Oct 68 - Oct 69 A troop 3/17 Air Cav.
So .. What is their reasoning for why drone scout helicopters won’t work? Seems like that type of technology would be the future & not put our pilots at risk so much.
Thanks for that information.
It’s always hard to say what exactly is “overpriced”. I think the vast majority of lower-level defense employees are honest. All that said, I think in general vast cost efficiencies could be had...
Drones aren’t autonomous yet, satellite radio is slow, helicopter flight requires fast reactions... And there’s ten years of drone scout chopper testing that’s not gone the way the military thought it would. Helicopters spend a lot of time very close to the ground going either at a hover or going as fast as they can. It’s not like the Predators/Reapers drifting around at high altitude outside visual range.
Normal operating altitude for a scout or attack chopper going fast - swerve around trees, climb to clear camels. Drones don’t do well with that - the control lag is just one issue.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_Grumman_MQ-8_Fire_Scout
Note the decidedly mixed history of the craft.
Australia say Tigers are pieces of crap
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.