On August 24 the United States Federal Claims Court issued a potentially far-reaching opinion (AgustaWestland North America, Inc. v. United States No. 14-877 C) in the continuing dispute between Leonardo Helicopters and the U.S. Army concerning the Army’s decision to use the Airbus Helicopters UH-72A Lakota light twin as its primary training aircraft. The Army decided to use a portion of the 400 UH-72s it had already purchased and/or optioned under a $3.2 billion Light Utility Helicopter (LUH) 2006 contract and to order more helicopters under that contract to fulfill the training mission. To help bring its training operations at Fort Rucker, Ala., to full strength, the Army filed a “justification and approval” in December last year to purchase 16 more UH-72As without “full and open competition.” The Army also intends to purchase another 97 training helicopters for FY18 for the training mission, subject to congressional appropriations.
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