Well, This Just Freaking Takes the Cake
Most TAH readers know that the President’s air transportation is provided by DoD. No issue with that.
Most TAH readers know that the USMC provides his official rotary-wing transportation – “Marine 1”, it’s called, when occupied by the POTUS. No real problem with that, either.
However, the Marine VIP helicopter fleet dedicated to the task is aging. So a contract has apparently been let to replace it.
However, I do have a huge problem with that. You see, the overall cost of the replacement program is estimated by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to be around $17 billion over multiple years – for 23 helicopters. The cost for each helicopter is estimated to be around $400 million. The rest of the $17 billion is presumably operations and maintenance costs associated with the program over its life cycle.
Yes, you read that correctly. $400 million. Per. Freaking. Helicopter.
To put things in perspective, that’s about the same unit cost as the Air Force One Boeing 747.
The USMC and Navy have been down this road before. They previously spent $3.2 billion on a failed effort to replace the Marine VIP helicopter fleet. That effort was terminated because it was “too costly”.
Adding that cost, the total spent to replace the Marine VIP helicopter fleet comes to a cool $20 billion.
Oh, and did I mention that the new helicopters won’t be ready until 2022? Or that the program cost does not include the cost of maintaining and operating the existing Marine VIP helicopter fleet until the new aircraft are available?
You know, it just seems to me that we could have negotiated a better deal than $400 million per helicopter. But I also have to wonder just hard we really tried to negotiate – seeing as only one firm (Sikorsky) bid on the latest contract.
And in case you were wondering: yeah, Sikorsky builds the current VIP fleet.
Sheesh. Perhaps the best comment I’ve heard on the situation was from a former senior DoD official, who quipped that at that price, “Marine One should be able to have a solid gold toilet for the president – except that it would add too much weight.”
Further details are found in this UK Daily Mail article. Don’t read it unless you want to get royally p!ssed.
But I guess in a way this is good news. After all, like I said yesterday: this means DoD – and especially the USMC and the Navy – must be absolutely flush with cash, right?
Category: "Your Tax Dollars At Work", Marine Corps, Navy, WTF?
So THAT’S why DoD wants to close all the commissaries.
So we Vets need to take cut after cut after cut in pay, benefits, equipment,.. BUT GOD FORBID that any of the self-coronated royalty in DC have to forgo ANY luxury or perk they desire, FSCK ‘EM ALL!!
I’m trying to imagine what a $400 million helicopter looks like. So, why not give them the very same birds our troops have to ride in and out of battle. Coupla Dillon mini-guns, .30 and/or .50 send ’em to the range for training and lots of practice then turn’em loose. $400 MIL? Or, issue each an Ospry and call it a day. I know Bell worked their asses off to get that thing airborne, used to see it being tested every day when I lived in Amarillo.
Bell has licensed Agusta Westland to develop and produce a civilian variant of the Osprey.
For this president, I say we buy a few Hips. He’d feel right at home.
For this president, I say we buy a few Hips. He’d feel right at home.
Michelle’s aren’t enough?
You owe me a new keyboard, Hondo. Mine now has coffee all over it.
Same here, I’ll send you my address 🙂
Damn that was good.
Actually he is going to get a modified version of The Hip with a hydralic kit.
Its called a Hip-Hop.
Speaking of presidential transport, I always got a kick out of watching the three-bird parade to Camp David. Gee, which one is HE in? Who cares? This isn’t a sidewalk shell game. Terrorists would just take them all out at once.
At least the crews of those helicopters will have improved morale and discipline due to their pay and benefits being cut per the SgtMaj of the Marine Corps. POTUS should think about that next time he steps on Marine 1…..
Of course all 50 states & numerous congressional districts want a piece of the action. Add in a pinch of corporate welfare & senior officers looking to grease the skids for their post military careers. Sh1t, wasn’t the army recently pressured by congress to buy unneeded Abrams tanks to the tune of over $400M (a certain congressional district in Lima, OH…cough, cough)…Tony Soprano would say “its just business”.
To put this into perspective, for the cost of just 3 of those helicopters, the Navy can new-build an Arleigh Burke class Aegis destroyer.
So for the cost of King Obama’s new fleet of helos, you could build 7 warships for our Navy, which arguably is in more need of those hulls than the King is of a new fleet of helicopters.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arleigh_Burke_class_destroyer
Actually, since they won’t be ready until 2022, they’ll be just in time to welcome in the next Democrat president we’ll be stupid enough to elect.
“I always got a kick out of watching the three-bird parade to Camp David. Gee, which one is HE in?”
Well you KNOW Michelle and Bo the dog have to fly separately, right?
I think its due to the current birds having to use a cargo sling to carry Michelle Obama’s ass around.
They say the Marines who were using the grounding stick were getting a bit too enthusiatic about wacking her when they landed.
Actually, the royals don’t like camp David. It’s in a rural area, surrounded by common working people. No, the royals prefer exotic places and getaways to NYC. The cost of maintaining Camp David for years while it has gone used? Millions and millions. It’s good to be the king.
Unused
“It’s good to be the king.”
Yup, and guess who are tagged to be “piss boys.”
Time was, Marine One was just a version of a helicopter in the active force, if not a former front line machine updated with a VIP interior. Done today that’d mean choosing either the V-22 or the latest version of a design from no more recently than the late 70s. Guess that’s only okay for Joe.
Seems like we’re going to be like any banana republic and buy the latest toy for important folks and let real military needs go unfilled.
I flew on the Mh-53 J-M, the most technilogical helicoper in the USAF. It was 40 million.
I still don’t know why the MH-53 has not been used as Marine 1. Twin engine, fast, and virtually bullet proof. Literally bullet proof. I know it is larger than the sea king but not that much larger. Not when you consider the places they fly into. The Jolly Green giant will carry such a load that a VIP interior would be a no brainer.
It looks like most of the cost of the program is for R&D to develop a new model. If I remember correctly, Boeing designed and built the B-777 for around 7 billion dollars. They cost around 300 million.
Cowpill and Roger in Republic, you guys are just making WAY TOO MUCH SENSE about this issue. Why use a known secure platform that could be tricked out to make Hugh Hefner envious? No, let’s build an all new, never seen before, gold plated chopper. That way, when they do the three card monte in a true emergency, where there are six or more in the air, (cause somebody’s gotta hit Starbucks on the way to AF1) they’ll be easier to pick out in the sky. A terrorist’s dream. Bet Chuck Hagel is all lined up with a defense contractor on this one for after the military. I bet he is in on the first flights testing too. I don’t think they’ll use the Osprey. I think if it ever crashed, it’s off the list. Which brings into play the “Rainman” answer…Qantas Airlines.
Having worked at similarly in the past, I can say that one of they’re VIP birds would be just fine off the line, with a few mods for safety. Those, by the way, cost way less than $400M. Just saying.
Bingo!
In fact, there’s off-the-shelf ready-for-upgrade material right here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikorsky_CH-53K_King_Stallion
I get a chub just thinking about that with a Pave package…. (puns intended)
I dint care who the president is, Rep Dem who ever is is needs to remember that they are there to serve the public. That they are not a Ruler.
I honestly believe that the president should have the same standard of living as the average American.
Fantasy I know but this Royal treatment of Elected officials has got to stop.
To extend my simile between the US plutocracy and the French aristocracy of the late 1700s “Paging Mme Guillotine? Paging Mme. Guillotine!”
“Term Limits” by Vince Flynn (RIP). Good story if you like fiction. (Simile)
Don’t confuse life cycle costs with the base cost of the aircraft. If you were to figure the life cycle cost of Air Force 1, it would greatly exceed the $400 million price tag you quoted.
Once you acquire an aircraft, you incur life cycle costs. You incur the cost not only of buying the aircraft, but also maintaining it, fueling it, manning it, and eventually disposing of it. You may as well figure up front what that cost will be, because you WILL be paying it.
Given my line of work, Brent Glines, I can assure you that I’m quite well aware that procurement cost does not equal life cycle cost. Never has, and never will.
The $400 million unit cost is not the unit life cycle cost for the proposed helicopters. 23 times $400 million does not equal $17 billion.
23 times 400 million equals $9.2 billion. As I noted above, the remaining $7.8 billion is presumably operations and maintenance expense over the life span of the fleet.
The unit life cycle cost for each of the proposed helicopters would be roughly ($17 billion / 23), or $739.1 million each.
While the quoted price of AF-1 is 400 million each, let me tell you, if the Government paid that they got a hell of a deal. It cost Boeing more than three times that much. When the costs started going up the CEO told us he didn’t care how much we spent because he would be damned if the next AF-1 would be a Douglas. A boeing 747 in Presidential livery was a flying billboard for Boeing around the world. It was priceless advertising. He was right. In some parts or the world the word for Airliner is Boeing. “I’m taking the evening Boeing to Bombay”. At the time a standard B-747 cost around 275 million, and was not shielded against EMP. The engineers consumed mass quantities of Maalox getting that right.
“But I also have to wonder just hard we really tried to negotiate – seeing as only one firm (Sikorsky) bid on the latest contract.”
This is because everybody else took a look at what NAVAIR, DoD, and the Secret Service did to the last attempt at this and said, “Nah, not interested.”
So basically we could just give the POTUS 3 personal F22 Raptor jets for the same cost. Give him a flight suit and the training to fly them and just do that. It would be cheaper.
This is so God damned ridiculous.
FatCircles0311…emptied out to minimum capacity, the F22 Raptor could handle Obama but not Michelle at the same time. Every platform has its weight limits. 😀
That’s ok.
There are 2 others for her and her ego.
Are these comments re Moochelle the reason Dear Leader nodded at Jonn yesterday?
I saw on Breitbart this afternoon that dear reader just took his 1000th ride on AF-1. That has got to be a record of some sort. I will google that and get back to you.