The $400 Million Helicopter
Visitors to Washington, D.C. often see Marine helicopters buzzing around the National Mall as the president and dignitaries are ferried the ten minutes to Andrews Airforce Base. After 9/11, the White House sought to build a new fleet of “Marine Ones” that would be able to withstand the rigors of a terrorism age, including missile jammers, sophisticated communications equipment, and even protection from a nuclear blast. Clearly these would not come cheap.
Unfortunately for taxpayers, the Marine One helicopter price tag is inflating higher than a hot air balloon. The cost of the 28 helicopter fleet was originally contracted out for $6.1 billion. But today the Washington Post reports that the cost has jumped to $11.2 billion…or approximately $400 million per helicopter, that’s more expensive than the Boeing 747 jet that serves as Air Force One!
Filed under: Defense, In The News
Quote from Citizens Against Government Waste in 2005.
“The Navy’s decision drew praise from Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW). “Today, taxpayers avoided what could have been another helicopter sinkhole had Sikorsky won the contract,” asserted Tom Schatz, president of the CAGW, a nonpartisan advocacy group focused on eliminating government waste, fraud, abuse and mismanagement.
The “who’s-more-American?” contest, he said, clouded the bigger issue. “Sikorsky draped its contract bid with American flags, insinuating that Lockheed presented a less ‘American’ choice,” Schatz averred. Picking the Lockheed team, he dded, “showed common sense by choosing a contractor that is expected to stay on budget and on schedule. With a record $427-billion budget deficit predicted for fiscal 2005, taxpayers deserve to have costs stay on the ground.”
And where are your today??