Army cancels Comanche helicopter program

The contractors for Comanche are Boeing Co. and United Technologies' Sikorsky Aircraft division.

With about $8 billion already invested in the program, but the production line not yet started, the cancellation is one of the largest in the history of the Army, the Associated Press reported.

Earlier this year, the White House budget office asked the Pentagon to provide independent reviews of the Comanche and another expensive aviation program, the Air Force's F/A-22 Raptor fighter. Although killing the Comanche project would save tens of billion in future costs, the cancellation decision is expected to require the Army to pay at least $2 billion in contract termination fees.

The Comanche was conceived to replace the Army's existing fleet of OH-58 and AH-1 scout and attack helicopters. The Comanche was supposed to significantly expand the Army's ability to conduct operations day and night and in poor weather.

The Comanche has a troubled history, and it remained in the research and development phase for years, with production repeatedly delayed by procurement funding shortages. But Army leaders long stood behind the aircraft.

In 1999, then-Army procurement chief Kenneth Oscar said the Comanche was an essential part of the Army's evolution to a smaller, more powerful force.

"The Army has very few development programs -- we have very little money," Oscar told Government Executive. "We've taken the money we do have and applied it to our top three priorities -- digitizing the battlefield, Comanche and Crusader [an artillery system canceled in 2002]. We've decided that's the best use of our money, so I don't think [Comanche] is vulnerable at all."

The Pentagon proposed to spend $1.1 billion in fiscal 2004 on the Comanche, but decided to reduce the total number of helicopters it planned to purchase from 1,200 to 650.