Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Inside The Pentagon
May 29, 2008
Pg. 1
Defense Secretary Robert Gates has directed a new, sweeping assessment of the U.S. military’s vertical-lift needs, aiming to harmonize -- where possible -- service-specific requirements in a bid to map a coherent acquisition path for all future helicopter and tiltrotor acquisitions.
In response to a request by lawmakers whose constituents include helicopter builders Boeing and Bell Textron, Gates has directed the Pentagon’s acquisition shop to spearhead a comprehensive review of the U.S. military’s rotorcraft needs, but stopped short of establishing a new office to oversee joint helicopter programs as was sought by the lawmakers.
The two-year assessment is expected to influence the requirements for a joint heavy lift aircraft and a joint multirole helicopter for future reconnaissance and attack missions, according to industry officials. It is not expected to influence near-term requirements for rotorcraft such as the UH-60 utility helicopter flown by the Army and Navy, the Marine Corps’ CH-53K and H-1 aircraft or the Army’s Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter, Light Utility Helicopter, CH-47 and AH-64D Block 3.
Reps. Joseph Sestak (D-PA), whose district includes Boeing’s CH-47 manufacturing line, and Kay Granger (R-TX), who represents Bell Textron’s helicopter facility in Texas, on Jan. 18 sent Gates a letter requesting an assessment of future helicopter needs and proposing a new Pentagon office.
Gates responded last week.
“In response to your request, I have directed the joint advanced concepts directorate, office of the under secretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, to lead the development of a [capabilities-based assessment] that will outline a joint approach to the future development of a vertical lift aircraft for all military services,” Gates wrote in a May 21 letter, a copy of which was sent to each lawmaker. The letter was obtained by InsideDefense.com.
The Joint Staff, working with U.S. Transportation Command and the services, will be required to develop a strategic plan to meet the requirements identified in the assessment, “with the emphasis on common service requirements.”
In addition, the Joint Staff and the Pentagon’s deputy under secretary for science and technology will develop “a detailed science and technology plan” that will identify the resources required to implement the strategic plan.
“We’ll see how it comes out,” Sestak said of the assessment Gates proposes, in a telephone interview with InsideDefense.com. A retired Navy vice admiral who is well acquainted with how capabilities-based assessments are conducted, Sestak said Gates’ plan to complete the assessment by the third quarter of fiscal year 2010 “seems unnecessarily long.”
Gates’ letter to Sestak was not sent in time to forestall the House from passing on May 22 an FY-09 defense authorization bill requiring a capabilities-based assessment of future helicopter needs, similar to what the Pentagon is now taking up.
“I inserted it as one of the provisions in the defense authorization bill because we had not heard back and I was wondering -- with all the bureaucratic issues [Gates] properly has to attend to -- whether this had his attention yet,” the former Navy three-star admiral said.
Sestak said he is not inclined to withdraw the provision from the bill later this summer when lawmakers from the Senate and House hammer out a final version of the FY-09 defense authorization bill.
Rhett Flater, president of the American Helicopter Society, praised Gates’ response, calling the assessment “historic.”
“The potential benefits for vertical lift, such as improved safety, survivability and capabilities, will be considerable,” Flater said in an e-mail yesterday to members of the helicopter association. “Given the important role played by rotorcraft in Afghanistan and Iraq and, very possibly, future 21st-century wars, this recognition of vertical flight is vital for the future of national and homeland security.”
The AHS is lobbying House and Senate defense appropriators to boost funding in Army and Navy science and technology accounts to enhance basic and applied research for rotary-wing safety and survivability, Flater said.
Gates’ letter notes that U.S. “vertical lift capabilities have been a key component of our success in the global war on terror, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
-- Jason Sherman
May 29, 2008
Pg. 1
Defense Secretary Robert Gates has directed a new, sweeping assessment of the U.S. military’s vertical-lift needs, aiming to harmonize -- where possible -- service-specific requirements in a bid to map a coherent acquisition path for all future helicopter and tiltrotor acquisitions.
In response to a request by lawmakers whose constituents include helicopter builders Boeing and Bell Textron, Gates has directed the Pentagon’s acquisition shop to spearhead a comprehensive review of the U.S. military’s rotorcraft needs, but stopped short of establishing a new office to oversee joint helicopter programs as was sought by the lawmakers.
The two-year assessment is expected to influence the requirements for a joint heavy lift aircraft and a joint multirole helicopter for future reconnaissance and attack missions, according to industry officials. It is not expected to influence near-term requirements for rotorcraft such as the UH-60 utility helicopter flown by the Army and Navy, the Marine Corps’ CH-53K and H-1 aircraft or the Army’s Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter, Light Utility Helicopter, CH-47 and AH-64D Block 3.
Reps. Joseph Sestak (D-PA), whose district includes Boeing’s CH-47 manufacturing line, and Kay Granger (R-TX), who represents Bell Textron’s helicopter facility in Texas, on Jan. 18 sent Gates a letter requesting an assessment of future helicopter needs and proposing a new Pentagon office.
Gates responded last week.
“In response to your request, I have directed the joint advanced concepts directorate, office of the under secretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, to lead the development of a [capabilities-based assessment] that will outline a joint approach to the future development of a vertical lift aircraft for all military services,” Gates wrote in a May 21 letter, a copy of which was sent to each lawmaker. The letter was obtained by InsideDefense.com.
The Joint Staff, working with U.S. Transportation Command and the services, will be required to develop a strategic plan to meet the requirements identified in the assessment, “with the emphasis on common service requirements.”
In addition, the Joint Staff and the Pentagon’s deputy under secretary for science and technology will develop “a detailed science and technology plan” that will identify the resources required to implement the strategic plan.
“We’ll see how it comes out,” Sestak said of the assessment Gates proposes, in a telephone interview with InsideDefense.com. A retired Navy vice admiral who is well acquainted with how capabilities-based assessments are conducted, Sestak said Gates’ plan to complete the assessment by the third quarter of fiscal year 2010 “seems unnecessarily long.”
Gates’ letter to Sestak was not sent in time to forestall the House from passing on May 22 an FY-09 defense authorization bill requiring a capabilities-based assessment of future helicopter needs, similar to what the Pentagon is now taking up.
“I inserted it as one of the provisions in the defense authorization bill because we had not heard back and I was wondering -- with all the bureaucratic issues [Gates] properly has to attend to -- whether this had his attention yet,” the former Navy three-star admiral said.
Sestak said he is not inclined to withdraw the provision from the bill later this summer when lawmakers from the Senate and House hammer out a final version of the FY-09 defense authorization bill.
Rhett Flater, president of the American Helicopter Society, praised Gates’ response, calling the assessment “historic.”
“The potential benefits for vertical lift, such as improved safety, survivability and capabilities, will be considerable,” Flater said in an e-mail yesterday to members of the helicopter association. “Given the important role played by rotorcraft in Afghanistan and Iraq and, very possibly, future 21st-century wars, this recognition of vertical flight is vital for the future of national and homeland security.”
The AHS is lobbying House and Senate defense appropriators to boost funding in Army and Navy science and technology accounts to enhance basic and applied research for rotary-wing safety and survivability, Flater said.
Gates’ letter notes that U.S. “vertical lift capabilities have been a key component of our success in the global war on terror, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
-- Jason Sherman