Court ends Army helo litigation

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit overturned a 2016 decision that would have required the Army to hold an open competition or submit a new Justification and Acquisition (J&A) document for additional training helicopters. Airbus Helicopters Inc. of Columbus, Miss., has built hundreds of UH-72A Lakota helicopters for Army Aviation helicopter training – primarily conducted at Fort Rucker, Ala. “We hope that the appellate court’s ruling today will finally end a two-year saga of one contractor (Leonardo) attempting to wrestle business from a customer by holding Army readiness hostage,” according to an Airbus statement. “This ruling also removes the threat that Leonardo has held over the heads of our American workers in Mississippi - more than 40 percent of whom are military veterans - as it has tied up Army procurement long enough to nearly shut down our American production line,” Airbus said. With this ruling, the Army can move forward with the procurement process and have the ability to select the EC-145, of which the Lakota is a variant. (Source: Rotor Wing International 01/23/18)