http://www.pressconnects.com/article/20090516/BUSINESS/905160415/Pentagon issues stop-work order for presidential helicopter
Lockheed shuts down project at Owego
By My-Ly Nguyen • mnguyen@gannett.com • Staff Writer • May 16, 2009
OWEGO - The presidential helicopter program at Lockheed Martin in Owego came to a screeching halt late Friday afternoon when the Pentagon issued a stop-work order.
The move was not entirely unexpected, though Lockheed said it didn't receive the news from the Navy program office until after 5 p.m. Friday, when most of the company's employees had already left for the day. President Barack Obama's administration had previously recommended cutting the $13 billion program from the proposed fiscal 2010 defense budget.
Starting Monday, Lockheed will begin going through the list of its roughly 800-person presidential helicopter team to decide which employees it will temporarily reassign to other projects at the Owego plant, including possibly the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle program or postal programs, spokesman Tom Greer said.
Lockheed had already planned on laying off about 225 workers in the coming days. Mid-May is the only timetable the company will provide. The facility employs roughly 4,000 people.
Greer said the stop-work order "doesn't change our approach to the previously announced reduction in force, but it does increase the likelihood that further reduction is going to be necessary in the months ahead. I can't qualify at this time."
U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-Hurley, whose district includes Owego, called the Pentagon's decision "irrational and fiscally irresponsible."
Hinchey has been among the politicians with constituents in the Binghamton area who have been extremely vocal about efforts to save the program. Hinchey on Tuesday said he sent a letter to Ashton Carter, under secretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, urging him not to issue the stop-work order.
To date, roughly $3.2 billion has been spent on the program. It is estimated it will take at least another $400 million to shut it down.
Hinchey noted the order calls for the Navy to develop a new presidential helicopter construction plan within 30 days, a timeline he called "unrealistic," especially considering the current project has been underway since Lockheed won the contract in 2005.
Greer said the stop-work order "gives the government, the customer, a temporary pause in the program. It's in effect for 90 days unless there's a mutually agreed extension to it. ... All we can do is stand by and abide by the terms of the stop-work and await further direction from the Navy."
Advertisement
All nine of the production and test copters in Increment One, or the first phase of the program, are in some stage of test or integration at different locations, including Lockheed in Owego and the Navy Air Station facility in Patuxent River, Md., Greer said.
Increment Two, which called for 23 production helicopters and some test aircraft, had been on its own stop-work order since 2007 as the program's costs increased from $6.1 billion to the current $13 billion.
"There's nothing in stop-work that determines what happens to those aircraft at this time," Greer said.
The Navy said it continues to review a range of options, including sales to interested parties, contractor buyback or potential applications to other Defense Department needs.