(NSI News Source Info) March 31, 2009: Bell Helicopter Textron, Inc., Fort Worth, Texas, is being awarded a $288,862,757 firm fixed price contract for the Fiscal Year 2009 procurement of 11 UH-1Y and 5 AH-1Z helicopters and associated technical data for the U.S. Marine Corps.
Under the US Marine Corps H-1 programme, 100 UH-1N Huey utility helicopters are being remanufactured by Bell Helicopter to the UH-1Y grade and 180 AH-1W SuperCobra attack helicopters to AH-1Z grade.
In April 2005, the USMC decided that the helicopters will be built as new rather than remanufactured, starting from the third low-rate initial production (LRIP) batch in 2008.
"The UH-1Y helicopter is fully marinised and capable of shipboard operations worldwide."
This strategy was preferred because of the increase in operational deployment following Operation Iraqi Freedom, the marginal cost difference and the adverse impact of having helicopters out of commission during the upgrade process.
The UH-1Y and AH-1Z have a very high level of commonality which reduces the manufacturing and procurement costs. The helicopters have a common four-bladed, composite, hingeless, bearingless main rotor system and tail rotor, engine, avionics, software, controls and displays.
Under the US Marine Corps H-1 programme, 100 UH-1N Huey utility helicopters are being remanufactured by Bell Helicopter to the UH-1Y grade and 180 AH-1W SuperCobra attack helicopters to AH-1Z grade.
In April 2005, the USMC decided that the helicopters will be built as new rather than remanufactured, starting from the third low-rate initial production (LRIP) batch in 2008.
"The UH-1Y helicopter is fully marinised and capable of shipboard operations worldwide."
This strategy was preferred because of the increase in operational deployment following Operation Iraqi Freedom, the marginal cost difference and the adverse impact of having helicopters out of commission during the upgrade process.
The UH-1Y and AH-1Z have a very high level of commonality which reduces the manufacturing and procurement costs. The helicopters have a common four-bladed, composite, hingeless, bearingless main rotor system and tail rotor, engine, avionics, software, controls and displays.Work will be performed in Fort Worth, Texas, (60 percent) and Amarillo, Texas, (40 percent), and is expected to be completed in Oct. 2011.
Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured.
The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting activity (N00019-09-C-0023).
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