Drummin Up New Bidness

http://defense.aol.com/2012/10/18/eads-to-army-bring-on-armed-aerial-scout-competition/




EADS To Army: Bring On Armed Aerial Scout Competition
By Richard Whittle
Published: October 18, 2012

WASHINGTON: The U.S. arm of European aerospace and defense giant EADS urged the Army on Thursday to buy new armed scout helicopters instead of upgrading its aging OH-58D Kiowa Warriors -- and challenged competitors to top the performance two potential EADS entries recorded in recent flight demonstrations.

"It's time for a competition," declared David Haines, EADS North America's vice president for rotorcraft programs, speaking at a press breakfast scheduled scant days prior to the largest yearly gathering of Army leaders and their industrial suppliers, the Association of the United States Army's annual meeting in Washington. "Keeping the Kiowa Warrior, quite frankly, for another 20 years isn't a satisfactory solution."

The Army has been struggling for years to come up with a replacement for the Kiowa, built by Bell Helicopter Textron Inc. of Fort Worth and upgraded several times over its roughly four decades in service. Early this year, the Army invited contractors to fly demonstrations of helicopters that, with modifications, might make suitable replacements, and five contractors responded. Those demonstrations are to end in November, and the Defense Acquisition Board, a top-level Pentagon committee, is to decide in December whether the results warrant funding a competition for a new Armed Aerial Scout (AAS) helicopter or whether the OH-58D should be upgraded again.

Company and Army pilots flew demonstrations from Sept. 24 to Oct. 3 at Alamosa, Colo., of two potential derivatives of the company's helicopters. One is the "Armed Aerial Scout 72X," a derivative of the UH-72A Lakota light utility helicopter the company has built for the Army in Columbus, Miss. The second -- the"Armed Aerial Scout 72X+" – is based on EADS subsidiary Eurocopter's civilian EC-145.