The US Army has dismissed claims by the General Accounting Office (GAO) that the Boeing-Sikorsky AH-66 Comanche helicopter will enter development with significant risks.
The service has also refuted claims in a new GAO report that it will not be able to complete development of the scout/attack helicopter within the $4.4 billion currently budgeted.
The contractors hope to launch full-scale engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) of the RAH-66 next April, with low-rate initial production of 15 Comanches to begin in 2004.
The investigative arm of the US Congress believes, however, that the current timetable "contains significant risks of cost overruns, schedule delays, and degraded performance". A recent report says EMD should be delayed until key mission equipment technologies have matured and been integrated into test aircraft.
It did not approve of plans to compress the flight test schedule, increasing the amount of concurrent developmental and operational testing. Neither does it favour initial production before completion of operational testing. "The programme is proceeding to the next development phase with high levels of uncertainty," the auditors concluded.
The report says that Pentagon officials estimate the US Army will exceed the $4.4 billion Comanche development programme by at least $150 million. Insufficient near-term funding could lead to a six- to 12-month delay.
Source: Flight International