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WASHINGTON: A top US Navy official said on Monday he remains concerned about schedule delays on an $8 billion contract with Textron Inc.'s Bell Helicopter unit to upgrade the Marine Corps's H-1 helicopters, although he said ultimately the company would “get there.”
William Balderson, deputy assistant secretary of the Navy for air programs, told reporters he met with Bell Helicopter chief executive Richard Millman for 45 minutes on Monday, their third meeting since Millman was named to the job last month.
“The H-1 program is not back on track and we're not satisfied with the schedule right now,” Balderson said, noting the company now appeared to be missing by months a production schedule that had already been revised last year.
But he said Millman's appointment and other efforts being undertaken by the company in cooperation with the Navy gave him confidence Bell's performance would improve.
“We believe they're on a path to recovery. The real question now is how quickly they can recover,” he said. “We still believe that they're going to get there.”
Balderson said Millman was reviewing production issues at Bell's Fort Worth, Texas plant and recognized the need to develop better business processes there, rather than focus on production issues on an ad hoc basis.
“We need to be able to do this routinely and at rate,” Balderson said.
He said Millman had promised to give Navy officials a long- term delivery schedule for the H-1 upgraded aircraft within the next two weeks.
He said the Navy had few options if Bell did not step up production rates, given the age of the existing fleet.
