{"id":54898,"date":"2019-06-25T14:00:31","date_gmt":"2019-06-25T14:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2019\/06\/25\/will-foreign-sales-save-the-chinook-production-line\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T23:57:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T23:57:20","slug":"will-foreign-sales-save-the-chinook-production-line","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/land\/2019\/06\/25\/will-foreign-sales-save-the-chinook-production-line\/","title":{"rendered":"Will foreign sales save the Chinook production line?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 The U.S. Army is hotly pursuing foreign military sales of its CH-47 F-model Chinook cargo helicopters in the hopes it will soften the blow from cuts made to its intended buy of the newest variant<\/a>, according to the service\u2019s undersecretary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But will foreign purchases fill the void? Earlier this year, Boeing didn\u2019t think so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By working to push these deals through, the Army is hoping Boeing will take less of a hit to its production line after the service decided not to buy Block II Chinook helicopters for the regular Army <\/a>as part of its fiscal 2020 budget request<\/a>. That latest budget request focused on shifting money toward major modernization efforts to include the purchase of two brand-new vertical-lift aircraft. The service plans to field Block II helos \u2014 as G-model CH-47s \u2014 to the special operators only.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Upgrades in the Block II version include newly designed rotorblades, major changes to the drive system and other improvements like non-segmented fuel cells. The aircraft is expected to buy back roughly 4,000 pounds of additional load capacity and adds range capability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Army approved the Chinook Block II effort to move into the engineering and manufacturing development phase in April 2017, and the program officially began in July 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe reality of this is this is a production line that depends heavily on U.S. Army production,\u201d Randy Rotte, Boeing\u2019s director of business development for cargo helicopters, said at the Army Aviation Association of America\u2019s annual summit in April.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are more than 900 Chinooks around the world, he said, and 542 of them are U.S. aircraft. \u201cAll the internationals in the world, if they come back to upgrade to Block II, is going to have a hard time in any real quantities sustaining that production base,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Army\u2019s original plan, ahead of the FY20 budget request, was to build 542 Block II Chinooks \u2014 473 “F” models and 69 “G” models.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boeing already had a plan to cope with a four-year gap between the ramping down of Block I production and the ramping up of Block II. The reality of that delta has been known for some time, according to Chuck Dabundo, Boeing\u2019s H-47 program manager. The goal was to bridge the gap with international orders.<\/p>\n\n\n\t