The future of the VH-71 presidential helicopter program neared the wire last month as Congress worked to pass a final 2010 defense appropriations bill that the President would sign before the start of the fiscal year on October 1. If the bill is not signed into law by then, Congress would need to pass a continuing resolution to temporarily fund the Department of Defense. As AIN went to press, the bill had not yet become law.
After Secretary of Defense Robert Gates on April 6 recommended the presidential helicopter replacement program be terminated and the DOD on May 15 issued an internal memo terminating work on the VH-71 and the Navy on June 1 announced that it would terminate the contract, most people understandably considered the program dead. But some support for the program remained in Congress, particularly in states and districts where businesses with VH-71 contracts were affected. So on July 30, the House of Representatives approved $400 million in its version of the defense appropriations bill (H.R. 3326) to continue research, development, testing and evaluation of the VH-71, with the objective of making five of the nine VH-71As that have been built to date into operational helicopters for the President. (The five are “pilot production” aircraft, while the other four are “test vehicles.”)
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