WASHINGTON \u2014 As the US Air Force looks to replace the aging Huey helicopters that guard\u00a0the nation’s nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles, a group of lawmakers is protesting the service’s plan to sole-source the contract to one manufacturer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Air Force needs a total of 72 aircraft to replace the outdated UH-1Ns that entered service over 40 years ago. Forty-one of those would be equipped for the nuclear mission, while the rest would be used primarily for VIP transport, Lt. Gen. Arnold Bunch, the service’s military deputy for acquisition, testified recently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Air Force has been trying to replace the Hueys since the mid-2000s. But this year, top service officials have stressed a new urgency in fielding the capability, contemplating a strategy that would bypass a competition altogether and instead involve buying Sikorsky’s UH-60 Black Hawks for the mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the rotorcraft industrial base is pushing back. A group of a dozen House lawmakers wrote a letter last week to House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, urging him to direct the Air Force to conduct “a fair and open competition.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Had the USAF held a competition when the requirement was first identified, those aircraft would be operating today,” according to the letter, from Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa., and several other members. “It is our collective view that a terrible precedent would be set if services were allowed to justify sole-source acquisitions by citing a sense of urgency due in part to a failure to properly plan and execute against known requirements. The House Armed Services Committee has been a champion for competition and it should continue to be.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A sole-source Huey contract award would send the wrong message to the rotorcraft industrial base and could have a “devastating” impact on companies investing in independent risk-reduction and research and development, the lawmakers wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n