Ways Sought to Extend V-22 Tilt-Rotor Work

A top defense official said today the Pentagon is studying ways to grant at least a temporary reprieve to the V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor program, which might avert threatened layoffs.

Deputy Defense Secretary Donald Atwood, making his first Capitol Hill appearance since getting the No. 2 job at the Pentagon, told the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee that two options are being examined and a decision should come “in a day or so.”

Atwood was peppered with questions about the program widely supported in Congress but canceled by Defense Secretary Dick Cheney as part of $10 billion in budget cuts.

“We have been looking at several alternatives,” Atwood told Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), whose state is home to Boeing Vertol, a partner in the project with Bell Helicopter Textron of Ft. Worth. Bell has said work on the V-22 will stop Friday and has warned 8,000 employees that if nothing happens layoffs will start Monday.

Specter told Atwood it would be expensive to halt the work now and then restart it in fiscal 1990 if Congress revives the plane and asked Atwood to “explore the possibility of maintaining enough effort to keep Bell in operation, maintain the status quo while this is evaluated by Congress.”

“Obviously we would encourage them (Bell) to continue and not break the contract,” said Atwood, noting that all Pentagon funds for the project in 1989 have been spent and if Bell stops work on the plane the contract will be broken. Without additional tax dollars, Bell must spend its own money to keep work going. If the Pentagon shifted more money to the work, key congressional committees would have to give their permission.

Atwood said among the options being examined were continuing the project “through some flight test program” or through “some kind of very minimal effort of technology demonstration.”

The plane has engine pods at the end of the wings with large propellers. The pods can rotate from horizontal for plane-like flight to vertical for helicopter-like takeoffs and landings. It is intended to haul Marines and supplies up to 200 miles from offshore boats to landing points, and the Army also is interested in the project. About $2.5 billion already has been invested in the program.

Atwood said the program was canceled for purely budgetary reasons, not because of any problem with the aircraft just now reaching the production stage or because of any qualms about its capabilities.