Obama Faces Tough Decision On Pricey Presidential Helicopters

WASHINGTON - President Obama has slammed high-flying executives traveling in cushy jets at a time of economic turmoil. But soon he will have to decide whether to proceed with some of the priciest aircraft in the world - a new fleet of 28 Marine One helicopters that will each cost more than the last Air Force One.

A six-year-old project to build state-of-the-art presidential helicopters has bogged down in a contracting quagmire that will challenge Mr. Obama's desire to rein in military contracting expenses. The price tag has nearly doubled, production has fallen years behind schedule and much of the program has been frozen until the new administration figures out what to do about it.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[pilotguy68]

Omo: All helicopters have life limited parts due to the stresses you mention. The BIG difference here is that the EH101/VH71 has an airframe life limit of 2700 hours. This means the biggest component of all - the WHOLE AIRFRAME - must be scrapped after 2700 hours. By comparison, the Sikorsky does not have a life limited airframe.

Why do we (taxpayers) want to spend more money on a product that has such a short useful life? We don't. But the majority of Americans do not know about helicopter mechanicals and would never know how bad they are getting ripped-off by the EH101/VH71 project.

[scorpioleidy]

Ah ...... another problem inherited by our president ... courtesy of GWB!

The current helicopters are more than 30 years old - so they need to be replaced & should be updated with the latest technology, bells & whistles for our current president ... but why do they cost so much - and does he really need 28 of them?

[imsosure]

Ride them and enjoy it, keep in mind you didn't design the protocol but you may as well enjoy it, you earned it Barak.

[scorpioleidy]

Agree! Now is not the time to take short-cuts that could risk our president's security!

[Sparty1]

Maybe he should ride the train. Would that make the media and the rest of the naysayers feel much better? This was something that Bushie could've taken care of years ago considering that this was an issue on his watch, but I guess he had to keep getting that war money to his compadres.

[ccpostman]

This outsourced contract should be CANCELED NOW!

The U.S. Shouldn’t be Outsourcing it's Security.

This is a Italian and British made (Finmeccanica Company) helicopter hiding under Lockheed Martin's skirt. They had to hide the outsourcing under a American Company's name to fool citizens in this country! This is the company making it, and it is a European consortium.
http://www.agustawestland.com/products01_01.php?id_product=25

And Hilary Clinton pushed for this outsourcing since Lockheed has plants in NY State. It actually took more jobs away.

The contract should have gone to Sikorsky, since it is almost 100% American made and ALL Marine One's were Sikorskys -
http://blogs.courant.com/on_background/2008/03/delauro-give-sikorsky-another.html
http://www.siteselection.com/ssinsider/snapshot/sf050214.htm

[not going2take it]

400 MILLION EACH! (get a rope!) for G.W.B !
that .mot.ther.f . . . t.h.e.i.f.!

M a y b e someone mis.under.­guest,imat­ed
the actual program while padding their
pockets with this a b u s e.

I am really starting to dislike the Rethugs
and their rampant government spending
and ongoing support of their buddies...

spend
spin
spend
spin
spend
spin
spent
spin
spent
spin

[noneIn2008]

Do Harry and Nancy have enough faith in our new President to give him the line item veto? Obama would cut the ridiculous and keep the essential. It is time for change.

[ADinSC]

Seems to me the line-item veto was tried before, and the Supreme Court deemed it unconstitutional.

[not going2take it]

Bush HAD reason(s) to be mindfully paranoid
as he had created SO many enemies that
he NEEDED to go to these ridiculous
measures.

But this level of spending is WHY we are in
such trouble (Jeeezzz.)

More Bushisms - Will it ever stop.

KNOCK - KNOCK (U.S. Marshals :)

[demfriend]

I think the very old helicopters being used are too old. Bottom line Obama will decide not us but I want him as safe as he can be which means not keeping the old ones any longer than must happen. The amount of nuts with ground to air mssles in the USofA might be a lot larger than we know and having the designation of Marine One doesn't make the President now and in the future much more safe if he helicopter can be close to outdated when even this president is in office. I think making the choice Bush did giving the contract to companies which had never built one is about as stupid as Bush could be making the choice. Typical of him probably got something secondary out of the choice.

[curiousasheck]

This was a Bush Project.

In case it isn't obvious .

[harriettubman]

If they're needed for his security then go for it. If the old ones work just fine, keep them.

[omo]

Helicoptors have fairly short lives because the vibrational stress is really hard on them.
Metal fatigue sets in. It's unfixable.

[Sparty1]

I can't take it anymore. The media just wants to try to paint Pres. Obama in a bad light any way they can. Wolff Blitzer just asked if President Obama should rethink his plan to replace the Air Force One helicopters. Like Pres. Obama came in office and his first directive was replace the copters, not like this issue has been on the table for the past 6 yrs.

[CessnaDriver]

Actually, the helos are "Marine One" helicopters.

[Carsy]

I was watching his show as well and was also speculating if Hillary Clinton will be left out of major foreign policy decisions. Wolf is useless, he just loves to speculate and create rumors, not to mention being slightly obsessed with how President Obama travels. Get off it already!

[wrenny]

I'm really sick of the "just asking questions" brand of attacks they're using these days too. That's not even journalism.

[AZ AF VET]

This issue has nothing to do with a classy ride, it has everything to do with National Security. The new helo's have countermeasures to ward off various forms of attack that the current one's don't have. Apparently, these were budgeted during the previous administration. How much is a Presidents life worth?

[Wiserone]

I totally agree!

[CessnaDriver]

Presidential security is about protecting not only the man, but the United States of America and it's continuity of government, especially during an attack.

Interesting about these whiners crying about Obama using AF 1: Did they bitch when Georgie was flying back and forth to Texas? What was the number, 155 round trips?

[scorpioleidy]

Totally agree!

[Scar1]

I guess Bush and Chaney wanted a classy get away with his friend on Wall Street.

[Scar1]

It was part of the Bush and Chaney war machines-you know they had to have "weapons of mass destruction" with our money. Make sure President Obama gets one-especially when they take down the picture-don't trust those mfs on that base-hell no!