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Lockheed over budget on presidential chopper

WASHINGTON — Lockheed Martin Corp.’s $6.1 billion next-generation presidential helicopter program is at least 50 percent over budget and will need to be re-certified as a national security requirement by the Pentagon’s leadership.

The Pentagon in March reported that the program’s price tag for a fleet of 28 new helicopters had reached $11.2 billion, and the Navy and Lockheed have been trying unsuccessfully to bring costs down.

The Navy waited to report Bethesda, Md.-based Lockheed’s “critical” cost breach until it explored numerous alternatives and considered making requirement trade-offs to keep the program within the original budget, Navy spokesman Lt. Clayton Doss said Thursday. But the service decided that was not possible.

Such overruns trigger a Nunn-McCurdy violation, which requires the Pentagon to notify Congress about significant cost growth on major acquisition programs. Doss said the service took the first step in notifying Congress about the presidential helicopter program’s cost breach on Wednesday.

A Lockheed spokesman referred requests for comment to the Navy.

The program now has to be re-certified by the defense secretary after it is determined that the Navy’s helicopters are required for national security reasons.

Paul Nisbet, an aerospace analyst at JSA Research, said it was difficult to tell who was to blame for the cost overruns because many of the helicopter's requirements are classified. But the Navy will probably reorganize the requirements to bring costs under control, he said.

“I don’t see it having much impact,” Nisbet said of the cost breach. “They need [the presidential helicopter], and they are going to pay for it, whatever it costs.”

Doss said past cost-cutting efforts on the presidential helicopter program included adopting 200 recommendations and Lockheed participating in a Navy acquisition review.

Earlier this week, Defense Secretary Robert Gates told lawmakers the Pentagon will be forced to make tough choices on acquisitions in the upcoming fiscal 2010 budget as the department faces the pressure of paying for two wars during a recession.

The helicopter, which will be outfitted with communications equipment, anti-missile defenses and hardened hulls, is dubbed Marine One whenever the president is on board. The aircraft is expected to be similar to Air Force One, unlike the 30-year-old helicopters they would replace.