Flying high: Lockheed wins presidential helicopter contract

Flying high
Lockheed Martin yesterday won a $1.7 billion contract to build a new
fleet of presidential helicopters, a prestigious award for the Bethesda
defense contractor and its European partners, who will make part of the
aircraft.
at http://www.washingtontimes.com/busin...0241-9135r.htm

Lockheed Team Wins Redesign Of Marine One
For Sikorsky, Loss of Contract Also Symbolizes Slip in Prestige
at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...2005Jan28.html

Is this good?
JD

JD wrote:

Is this good?
JD




Well if you work at Sikorsky, not really. As a overall deal? It's Ok I
guess.

"Tiger" wrote in message
...
JD wrote:

Is this good?
JD




Well if you work at Sikorsky, not really. As a overall deal? It's Ok I
guess.


Apart from the French parts...
Is there a competitor left?

" wrote:

Flying high
Lockheed Martin yesterday won a $1.7 billion contract to build a new
fleet of presidential helicopters, a prestigious award for the Bethesda
defense contractor and its European partners, who will make part of the
aircraft.
at http://www.washingtontimes.com/busin...0241-9135r.htm

"Mr. Young said the total Marine One development and acquisition cost
would be $6.1 billion for 23 helicopters, with the first scheduled for
delivery in October 2009. Mr. Young said the total Marine One
development and acquisition cost would be $6.1 billion for 23
helicopters, with the first scheduled for delivery in October 2009."

Whoa! $6.1 Billion for 23 units is $265 million per helicopter.
I dunno sounds like a lot...too much actually.

Jay

----------
In article ,
(JJ) wrote:

"Mr. Young said the total Marine One development and acquisition cost
would be $6.1 billion for 23 helicopters, with the first scheduled for
delivery in October 2009. Mr. Young said the total Marine One
development and acquisition cost would be $6.1 billion for 23
helicopters, with the first scheduled for delivery in October 2009."

Whoa! $6.1 Billion for 23 units is $265 million per helicopter.
I dunno sounds like a lot...too much actually.

Actually, I believe this is actually for several decades of support and
maintenance. They're not just buying helicopters, but a long-term service
contract.



D

"D" wrote:

----------
In article ,
(JJ) wrote:

"Mr. Young said the total Marine One development and acquisition cost
would be $6.1 billion for 23 helicopters, with the first scheduled for
delivery in October 2009. Mr. Young said the total Marine One
development and acquisition cost would be $6.1 billion for 23
helicopters, with the first scheduled for delivery in October 2009."

Whoa! $6.1 Billion for 23 units is $265 million per helicopter.
I dunno sounds like a lot...too much actually.

Actually, I believe this is actually for several decades of support and
maintenance. They're not just buying helicopters, but a long-term service
contract.
D

I'll go read the article again - don't they usually say something
about "life cycle costs" for support and maintenance? The article
just says development (can be BIG bucks) and acquisition costs.

Of course, newspaper articles are never wrong. :-)

Jay

(JJ) wrote in news:4212f516.129150218
@news2.flex.com:
Whoa! $6.1 Billion for 23 units is $265 million per helicopter.
I dunno sounds like a lot...too much actually.

And of course, one may wonder why we need 23 helicopters for 1 president?

--lw--

----------
In article , Lee Witten
wrote:

Whoa! $6.1 Billion for 23 units is $265 million per helicopter.
I dunno sounds like a lot...too much actually.

And of course, one may wonder why we need 23 helicopters for 1 president?

Because they serve people other than the President. And there are other
security concerns as well.

For starters, whenever Marine One flies, there are two other identical
helicopters flying with it, as decoys. I live near Washington and have
watched Marine One come in to land at the White House. If you look, you can
usually see the other two helos flying around. I have also seen three of
them land down on the Mall, carrying a lot of VIPs. I think that the German
Prime Minister was in town that time. Plus they're going to have several
that are deployable, several in training, several in maintenance.

I think that 23 is somewhat high, but I can easily see how they would need
more than a dozen of them.



D

JJ wrote:

Whoa! $6.1 Billion for 23 units is $265 million per helicopter.
I dunno sounds like a lot...too much actually.

The helos themselves are complex, with a very elaborate commo and (one
assumes) self-protection outfit. That jacks up the price considerably right
there.

On top of the aircraft, there's a lot of associated infrastructure. The
Navy news website today has an illustration of the new test facility to be
built at Pax River specifically for the VXX program, at a cost of some $84
million (including new tower, air ops center, hangar, etc.). I suspect
that's necessary because of the requirement for total cradle-to-grave
security on the presidential helos. Similar costs will surely accrue for
other aspects of the program. Quantico will need new hangars too, for
example.

And running any high security program has its own costs. Not least will be
the cost of recruiting and employing a whole assembly line of people with
Yankee White clearances. They won't come cheap, especially since they know
they have LM over a barrel on this one. I wonder how many of Sikorsky's
cleared machinists will be moving from Bridgeport to Owego.

--
Tom Schoene Replace "invalid" with "net" to e-mail
"Our country, right or wrong. When right, to be kept right, when
wrong to be put right." - Senator Carl Schurz, 1872