{"id":53349,"date":"2018-09-26T20:35:48","date_gmt":"2018-09-26T20:35:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2018\/09\/26\/despite-kc-46-problems-air-force-optimistic-about-boeings-huey-replacement\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T23:56:50","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T23:56:50","slug":"despite-kc-46-problems-air-force-optimistic-about-boeings-huey-replacement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/air\/2018\/09\/26\/despite-kc-46-problems-air-force-optimistic-about-boeings-huey-replacement\/","title":{"rendered":"Despite KC-46 problems, US Air Force optimistic about Boeing\u2019s Huey replacement"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WASHINGTON \u2014 The U.S. Air Force\u2019s top leader is hopeful that Boeing will be able to keep the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/digital-show-dailies\/air-warfare-symposium\/2017\/03\/02\/boeing-and-leonardo-debut-the-mh-139-their-bid-for-the-huey-replacement\/\" target=\"_blank\">newly awarded UH-1N helicopter replacement<\/a> on pace despite the company\u2019s record with schedule delays on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/air\/2018\/06\/20\/heres-when-the-air-force-will-get-its-first-kc-46\/\" target=\"_blank\">KC-46 tanker program<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe intention there is to work with Boeing. We don\u2019t think this is a complicated procurement,\u201d Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson said Sept. 26. \u201cThe first part <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/smr\/nuclear-arsenal\/2017\/02\/16\/industry-offers-come-up-short-in-air-force-s-huey-replacement-program\/\" target=_blank>will be the engineering work<\/a> and some of the things that they are going to have to do to modify the aircraft. We\u2019ll move through that and then we expect to buy four of them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Wilson spoke to reporters at the National Press Club just days after the Air Force gave a contract to a Boeing-Leonardo team for the Huey replacement, and ahead of the T-X contract award that is speculated to be announced this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/breaking-news\/2018\/09\/24\/the-air-force-picks-a-winner-for-its-huey-replacement-helicopter-contract\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/MH-139-5.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">The Air Force picks a winner for its Huey replacement helicopter contract<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">One of the competitors pulled off an upset victory.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A Boeing-Leonardo team won the UH-1N replacement contract Monday \u2014 a $375 million initial payment to build the first four MH-139s with follow-on awards potentially worth up to $2.38 billion. Boeing and Leonardo are individually competing for the T-X trainer contract, as is Lockheed Martin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Wilson touted the Huey replacement effort as an example of the benefits of industrial competition, saying the Air Force saved $1.7 billion on the program by having multiple vendors bid on a fixed-price contract set up so contractors are responsible for cost overruns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Air Force had initially considered sole-sourcing UH-60 Black Hawks from Lockheed Martin subsidiary Sikorsky when the program began, but former service leaders believed it was legally obligated to pursue a competition and chose to open up the process in 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAs it turns out, I think that really was the right decision,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cIt wasn&#8217;t a decision I made \u2014 it was my predecessor \u2014 but because of that competition, Boeing won the competition at a significantly lower price point, so I think the taxpayer is going to get a good deal out of that and the Air Force will get a replacement for the aging Hueys for both the missile fields and other areas.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At face value, the KC-46 and Huey-replacement programs share some similarities: Boeing won both contests by offering a militarized version of a commercial aircraft and by undercutting the competition after bidding aggressively low on a fixed-price contract. Analysts have speculated that if Boeing wants to win T-X with its clean-sheet design, it will have to take the same assertive approach in terms of price.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/breaking-news\/2018\/09\/17\/air-force-finds-new-kc-46-deficiencies-putting-planned-delivery-date-in-jeopardy\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"188\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/kc46-refueling.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Air Force finds new KC-46 deficiencies, jeopardizing planned delivery date<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">The Boeing-made tanker has encountered yet another set of issues.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">During her remarks, Wilson avoided connecting lines among the KC-46 program, the Huey replacement and the T-X competition, even when asked if the difficulties on the tanker program had led to lessons learned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Instead, she repeated that, despite the KC-46\u2019s ongoing technical issues, the Air Force and Boeing continue to work toward getting the first KC-46 ready for delivery in October.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe\u2019re still getting the test reports in and making sure that any deficiencies are taken care of, or that Boeing commits to take care of them at Boeing\u2019s expense, even when we do operational test and evaluation,\u201d she said. \u201cBut we\u2019re driving through those. This is why we do testing: to make sure that it works and that all the kinks are worked out of the aircraft. And when it\u2019s ready, we\u2019ll accept it.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson doesn&#8217;t believe the Huey replacement is &#8220;a complicated procurement.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":28855,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":7,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"2":{"categories":["your-military","news","middle-column","home"],"primary_category":"your-military"},"4":{"categories":["your-air-force","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters","left-column","home"],"primary_category":"your-air-force"}}},"categories":[7,160,12,36],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3384],"class_list":["post-53349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-air","category-daily-news-roundup","category-industry","category-newsletters"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"E4VZKI4HSNA6FJDDVOSFIFSQW4","arc_canonical_url":"\/air\/2018\/09\/26\/despite-kc-46-problems-air-force-optimistic-about-boeings-huey-replacement\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Despite KC-46 problems, US Air Force optimistic about Boeing\u2019s Huey replacement - Defense News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson doesn&#039;t believe the Huey replacement is &quot;a complicated procurement.&quot;\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/air\/2018\/09\/26\/despite-kc-46-problems-air-force-optimistic-about-boeings-huey-replacement\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Despite KC-46 problems, US Air Force optimistic about Boeing\u2019s Huey replacement\" \/>\n<meta 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