Contractors has informed the US Air Force that their off the shelf solutions is not guaranteed to meet all their demands that was included in their proposal. This has caused in a suspension of releasing their final request to recapitalize its UH-1N Huey helicopter.
The final request for this month proposal has been prepared already, however the publication of this information was to be postponed till the summer. However the service’s second draft’s release of the request for proposal has been hindered till April 2017 according to the USAF. Having that said, the contract would be awarded in 2018 to deliver the first functioning helicopter in the year 2020.
The USAF has released its preliminary draft of the request for proposal to substitute the Bell UH-1N Hueys from the Vietnam period which called for a completely transparent challenge to acquire over 80 helicopters. However contractors have informed the US air force right after the request for proposal was submitted that it won’t be possible to meet all their maintenance threshold requirements using the available commercial aircraft.
Sikorsky, the manufacturer of the UH-60 Black Hawk could take over the Huey recapitalization since it has become a singular source provider for current requirements according to Helicopter manufacturers in the industry. Previous trials of the contract has reflected a singular source for procuring UH-60M Black Hawks, nevertheless the service has decided to proceed with a conventional fully open rivalry.
For the air force to carry a minimum of nine combat troops in addition to their equipment at a high speed of around 250 km/hr, they must call for the replacement helicopter. Having that said, the US Air Force acquisition chief has stated that the replacement Hueys wouldn’t be necessary to carry over nine troops.
