Presidential helicopter passes CDR milestone | IHS Jane's 360

Lockheed Martin inherited the VH-92A Presidential Helicopter Replacement Program when it acquired Sikorsky in 2015. Coincidentally, the company was the prime contractor on the previous aborted presidential helicopter effort when it was selected to provide the AgustaWestland AW101 (designated US101 for the presidential competition) in 2005.

That effort, dubbed VH-71, was cancelled by President Barack Obama in June 2009 after nearly USD3 billion of a projected USD13 billion cost had been spent. This projected cost had risen by more than 80% from USD6.5 billion since the programme was launched in 2005, and in cancelling the contract the president described the programme as an example "of the procurement process gone amok".

In 2011 the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) published a report on this failed acquisition in an effort to learn the lessons ahead of re-launching the effort under the V-XX initiative.

The report - Defense Acquisitions: Application of Lessons Learned and Best Practices in the Presidential Helicopter Program - highlighted lessons that included employing acquisition best practices and conducting early systems engineering. If this had happened from the beginning of VH-71, "it could have led to a feasible, stable, preliminary design ideally before development start", the report said, adding that "in turn, a stable, early design allows for more accurate programme cost estimates and a better foundation for sufficient funding commitments".

With V-XX now running to cost and schedule, it would seem that these lessons were indeed heeded and acted upon by Lockheed Martin and the programme office.