Most TAH readers know that the President\u2019s air transportation is provided by DoD.\u00a0 No issue with that.<\/p>\n
Most TAH readers know that the USMC provides his official rotary-wing transportation \u2013 \u201cMarine 1\u201d, it\u2019s called, when occupied by the POTUS.\u00a0 No real problem with that, either.<\/p>\n
However, the Marine VIP helicopter fleet dedicated to the task is aging.\u00a0 So a contract has apparently been let to replace it.<\/p>\n
However, I do<\/em> have a huge<\/span> problem with that.\u00a0 You see, the overall cost of the replacement program is estimated by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to be around $17 billion over multiple years \u2013 for 23 helicopters<\/span>.\u00a0 The cost for each helicopter is estimated to be around $400 million.\u00a0 The rest of the $17 billion is presumably operations and maintenance costs associated with the program over its life cycle.<\/p>\n Yes, you read that correctly.\u00a0 $400 million<\/strong>. Per. Freaking. Helicopter.<\/strong> To put things in perspective, that\u2019s about the same unit cost as the Air Force One Boeing 747<\/span>.<\/em><\/p>\n The USMC and Navy have been down this road before.\u00a0 They previously spent $3.2 billion on a failed effort to replace the Marine VIP helicopter fleet.\u00a0 That effort was terminated because it was “too costly”.<\/p>\n Adding that cost, the total spent to replace the Marine VIP helicopter fleet comes to a cool $20 billion.<\/p>\n Oh, and did I mention that the new helicopters won\u2019t be ready until 2022<\/em>?\u00a0 Or that the program cost does not<\/em> include the cost of maintaining and operating the existing Marine VIP helicopter fleet until the new aircraft are available?<\/p>\n You know, it just seems to me that we could have negotiated a better deal than $400 million per helicopter.\u00a0 But I also have to wonder just hard we really tried to negotiate \u2013 seeing as only one firm (Sikorsky) bid on the latest contract.<\/p>\n And in case you were wondering:\u00a0 yeah, Sikorsky builds the current VIP fleet.<\/p>\n Sheesh.\u00a0 Perhaps the best comment I\u2019ve heard on the situation was from a former senior DoD official, who quipped that at that price, \u201cMarine One should be able to have a solid gold toilet for the president \u2013 except that it would add too much weight.\u201d<\/p>\n Further details are found in this UK Daily Mail <\/i>article<\/a>.\u00a0 Don\u2019t read it unless you want to get royally p!ssed.<\/p>\n But I guess in a way this is good news.\u00a0 After all, like I said yesterday<\/a>:\u00a0 this means DoD – and especially the USMC and the Navy – must be absolutely flush with cash, right?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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