Procurement woes: Army learns tough lessons from armed helicopter letdown.

• Author: Magnuson, Stew
• Position: ARMY AVIATION

ATLANTA -- The Army set out three years ago to acquire a new reconnaissance helicopter in record time. Its goal was to equip a unit with the aircraft within four years by using "commercial-off-the-shelf" proven technologies.

That goal will not be met. Meshing the tried and trusted technologies together proved harder than expected. And it ended up doubling the price tag that the Army initially had estimated for its Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter.

The terms "commercial off the shelf" and the closely related "plug and play" are favorites in PowerPoint presentations at conferences. The premises sound good on paper: buy a commercially available product and skip the expensive development work: or take different hardware or software components and blend them together seamlessly.

COTS "is a great bullet on a chart, and it briefs well ... but nothing happens without a hitch," said Greg King, director of government business development at FLIR Systems Inc., one of the ARH subcontractors.

While purchasing commercial-off-the-shelf technology causes little trouble when the military buys a flashlight, when acquiring something as complex as a helicopter, the term may be a misnomer.

As the Army and the aircraft manufacturer, Bell Helicopter Inc., continue to work to get the program back on track, acquisition officials say they are already getting smarter about how to convert commercial technologies to military products.

Claude Bolton Jr., assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology, said once the facts have been gathered on the ARH program, hard lessons will be learned.

"For any program to be done quickly--and particularly one like this ... requirements have to be firm, funding has to be them, the technology has to be them, and you have to have the right people on the government and industry side to execute it. Failing any or all of those, you have a problem," Bolton said at the Army Aviation Association of America's annual symposium in Atlanta.

The ARH is not an off-the-shelf system, Bolton said. Paul Bogosian, the Army program executive officer for aviation, agreed. "I wouldn't call this a COTS aircraft, but it has COTS features."

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, coupled with the immediate need to replace the aging Kiowa Warrior, forced the Army to set an aggressive acquisition schedule. Its goal was to equip a unit in a little more than four years--a remarkable reduction from the seven to 10 years such a program would normally take.

To do this, the plan called for the development, design, flight test and building of the prototype aircraft to all happen concurrently.

When it comes to a program with commercial-off-the-shelf elements, the devil is in the details, the Army and Bell discovered. Or perhaps more accurately, the devil is in the subsystems.

Earlier this year, Bell had difficulties integrating the Rockwell Collins-manufactured cockpit operating system, and FLIR Systems' target and acquisition system. That delayed the crucial "limited user test" by several months. The integration issue was resolved, but further difficulties were encountered with the unproven FLIR ball that houses sensors crucial for a scout helicopter. (See related story page 24)

The Army ordered Bell to stop the work, but immediately rescinded the directive. However, the company had to submit a revised...