1 / 9

Julien Demotes -Mainard Sciences Po Toulouse DAU, April 2012

RAH-66 Comanche: The Self- I nflicted Termination Exploring the Dynamics of Change in Weapons Procurement. Julien Demotes -Mainard Sciences Po Toulouse DAU, April 2012. An Unusual C ase of Program T ermination. Cancellation : Army decision 2004: the RAH-66 was – finally – on track

ingrid-fry
Download Presentation

Julien Demotes -Mainard Sciences Po Toulouse DAU, April 2012

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript


  1. RAH-66 Comanche: The Self-InflictedTerminationExploring the Dynamics of Change in WeaponsProcurement Julien Demotes-Mainard Sciences Po Toulouse DAU, April 2012

  2. An Unusual Case of Program Termination • Cancellation : Armydecision • 2004: the RAH-66 was – finally – on track • Few in the Army were reluctant to terminate it Stated Reason for Termination: • Restore the balance in the Aviation budget

  3. RemainingQuestion • How the program wentfrom a top prioritystatus down to a terminationnobodyseriouslyopposed in the Army? Approach and methodology • Decision-makingprocess (1983-2004) • Official documents and interviews

  4. AirLand Battle doctrine • A versatile airframe • LHX : consensus between the Aviation branch and the Armycivilian leadership “Humvee is a very good engine and chassis you can reconfigure; it can be an ambulance, it can be a truck, it can carry a machine gun, it can do a lot of things. Ambrose wanted a helicopter just like that.” (P. L. Francis, personal communication, November 18, 2010) The « FlyingHumvee »

  5. Western perception of an increasing Soviet threat • OSD’s choice for stealth […] in attack aircraft that would need to penetrate hostile airspace, there was an emerging consensus on the need to reduce the signature of the airplanes in every dimension, and stealth was a particularly salient element of that debate in the 1980s. (D. S. C. Chu, personal communication, June 27, 2011) The StealthRequirement

  6. Perestroika/Glasnost – Fall of the Berlin Wall: • Defense budget is dropping • LHX is coming under scrutiny Collapse of the USSR (1991): • Comanche’s development is streamlined LosingitsRationale

  7. Finding a New Roleinside the Army Twoissues for the RAH-66 : • Budget • Mission Program office/TRADOC strategy: • Buildflying prototypes • Increase Comanche’s ISR capabilities …but the initiative has conflictingeffects

  8. GWOT : a new kind of war • But up until 2003 Comanche remains secured (Objective Force) Change comeswithGen. Peter Schoomaker • Special Forces bring new operational perspective • The RAH-66 is terminated in February 2004 War on Terror: The Final Stroke

  9. Conclusion • Lack of a broad-based support, fluctuating commitment • The program was transformed into an ISR platform to secure an incontestable role within the Army • But Comanche’s constituency had remained fragile: after Shinseki departure, the subsequent merger of the Army’s and OSD’s operational perspectives killed the program • Service’s support for a given program can significantly change over time, and has to be examined in order to explain termination

More Related