Boeing has submitted a five-year proposal to the US Army to deliver 155 CH-47F Chinook helicopters.
The company says the deal would save “hundreds of millions of dollars” over year-to-year deals by allowing Boeing to negotiate longer-term agreements with suppliers and plan its expenditures more effectively.
Boeing is halfway through a $4.3 billion deal signed in August 2008 to supply the US Army with 191 of the workhorse helicopters. It says a second five-year contract would bring the Army close to the 464 CH-47Fs outlined in the Department of Defense program of record for the Chinook. But the proposal comes amid an atmosphere of cost-cutting in Washington.
Australia has seven CH-47Fs on order, under a contract signed in March 2010. The first two Australian CH-47Fs are planned to enter service in 2014, with all seven expected to be in service by 2017.
