Navy to slash budget request for Marine One
By Roxana Tiron

The Navy is planning to slash funds for the new presidential helicopter by half in its 2008 budget request, according to defense and industry sources.

Under an aggressive Bush administration timetable, the advanced helicopter, the VH-71, will be on the White House lawn in the next decade.

But the high-profile program, designed to replace the aging and faulty Marine One helicopter fleet, has been in Congress’s crosshairs since its inception.

Defense authorizers and appropriators criticized the timetable, saying it sacrificed safety and proper vetting of the new helicopters.

But appropriators slashed $50 million from the program because of slow research and development into the more advanced parts of the helicopter.

With the 2008 budget request being sent to Capitol Hill Feb. 5, the Navy, which runs the program, is proposing to cut $400 million from the projected $737 million, a number that includes both procurement money and research, development, test and evaluation funds.

The $400 million will be taken away from development that will not take place in 2008, a Navy official said. The Navy would expect to put that money back into the program when it is needed, the official added.

It is unclear whether the White House has accepted the Navy’s plan because the budget request is not yet finalized. The White House military office did not return calls for comment by press time.

“We are working with the appropriate folks to sort it out and to remain fiscally responsible,” said John Milliman, the program’s spokesman at the Naval Air Systems Command. The Navy is still committed to meet the accelerated schedule, he added.

The $400 million cut could, however, be more symbolic than real, and thus get White House approval, because the Navy is rolling over $400 million not used in previous years, sources say.

“The Navy is fessing up and saying, ‘We do not need next year’s money for this because we can use the money that is left over,’” the official said.

The $1.6 billion contract for the VH-71 went to a team made up of Lockheed Martin and AugustaWestland, an Italian-British helicopter venture that is part of the Italian Finmeccanica consortium.

The first presidential helicopter from the contract is expected to be at the White House in 2009 or early 2010. By 2015, all 23 helicopters in the program will be upgraded to the most technologically advanced version.

Five of the 23 make up the first increment of the delivery. The remaining 18 VH-71s will be part of the second increment of more capable aircraft. Three test aircraft are also part of the contract. The Marine Corps flies the president’s choppers.

Both the helicopters and the systems that will be integrated are already in operation with the U.S. military and around the world.

The Navy is undertaking all three traditionally consecutive phases of acquisition — design, testing and production — at the same time to compress the schedule.

But several lawmakers, including Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii), chairman of the Air and Land armed services subcommittee, have complained that the administration’s schedule forces the development of the helicopter to overlap with the procurement of the aircraft.

Under the new armed services subcommittee arrangement, the seapower and expeditionary subcommittee chaired by Rep. Gene Taylor (D-Miss.) will have jurisdiction over the program.

Even though the Navy is still committed to having the first aircraft in 2009, the service is adjusting to be able to handle all the elements of the program, the official said. The Navy is “looking at a lot of things to happen in a certain amount of time,” the official said.

The Navy’s proposal to cut the funding request for the presidential helicopter comes at a time when the Navy is looking to grow its fleet by 30 ships in the next decade. The service is trying to find ways to save money and so is also scrutinizing other aircraft programs.

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