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Lockheed Helicopter Funding Shift Reduced by Skeptical Lawmaker

Lockheed Helicopter Funding Shift Reduced by Skeptical Lawmaker

(Bloomberg) -- The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee turned down a Navy request for $158 million to correct flaws with Lockheed Martin Corp.’s new King Stallion helicopter, agreeing to shift only half that amount from other programs.

Representative Adam Smith, a Democrat from Washington state, wrote the Defense Department that he’d approve the remaining $79 million only after the Marines and the Pentagon’s test office provide a report about what progress is being made to solve the heavy lift helicopter’s most serious technical problem -- the ingestion of exhaust gas back into one of the helicopter’s three engines.

Under congressional procedures, any of the four defense committees can block or modify a “reprogramming” request.

The Navy said earlier this year that “this critical additional $158M funding will enable the test program to support” Marine Corps “preparations and operational deployment in 2023-2024.” The reprogramming request sent to Congress said that without the extra money “the program will incur significant delays.”

Greg Kuntz, a spokesman for the Naval Air Systems Command, said the $31 billion helicopter program, designated CH-53K, will miss a December target for the Navy declaring that it has an initial combat capability.

A new date “has not been finalized and is pending the final decision” on the funding shift, he said. That date will be at least 19 months after December, according to the Navy.

Bill Falk, the King Stallion program manager for Lockheed’s Sikorsky aircraft unit, said in an email that “we are pleased Congress recently approved reprogramming funds” as “this demonstrates the confidence the legislative branch and Marines have in the CH-53K program and recognizes the crucial role this all-new heavy lift helicopter will play.”

He offered no comment on the decision to cut the request by half.

To contact the reporter on this story: Tony Capaccio in Washington at acapaccio@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Bill Faries at wfaries@bloomberg.net, Larry Liebert, Elizabeth Wasserman

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