Limited funding for the Lockheed Martin/AgustaWestland VH-71 presidential helicopter, which is based on the three-engine AgustaWestland AW101, has made it into the final
FY2010 U.S. defense appropriations bill (H.R. 3326), reviving the machine’s chances of one day flying the President. At the direction of Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, the Pentagon terminated the program on May 15 last year. Since then, proponents of the program, publicly led by Congressman Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.), have lobbied to have funds to continue the VH-71 program included in the appropriations bill. The FY2009 defense appropriations ended on September 30, after which Congress passed a resolution to keep funds temporarily flowing to the Department of Defense.
At press time, the Senate had neither approved the bill nor sent it to President Obama. Last year, the President said he would consider vetoing the defense appropriations bill if it contained funding to continue the VH-71, which had been
plagued by delays and cost overruns ($3.3 billion spent to date). But this latest version of the bill, which came out of the joint House and Senate conference committee on December 15 and was quickly approved by the House, includes a relatively small sum: $130 million in funding for the program, “of which $100 million is for technology capture to recoup investments in research and development for the VH-71,” according to the House Committee on Appropriations.
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