The US government's binding offer (Letter of Offer and Acceptance) to the Bundeswehr for the planned procurement of 60 Boeing CH-47F Chinook heavy transport helicopters has been delayed by several months. This emerges from a response from the federal government to a small question from Jens Lehmann, CDU member of the Bundestag and member of the Defense Committee of the German Bundestag.
“The Letter of Offer and Acceptance (LOA) for the Heavy Transport Helicopter (STH) project is not yet available. According to US estimates, the submission of the LOA may be delayed by two months. The reason for the delay is an additional workload in the US administration in connection with the Russian war against Ukraine, which is independent of the STH project," says the response from the Federal Ministry of Defense (BMVg).
In a press release sent out today, Lehmann points out that the BMVg has so far asserted “that a binding offer will be available by the end of March. Now it is said that the bill may be delayed by two months.” The CDU MP therefore assumes that parliamentary treatment in the second quarter of 2023 is “extremely endangered and almost impossible”.
In addition, Lehmann questions the reason for the delay. “This is unbelievable and nonsense when you follow the US FMS offers published in parallel for other countries. Rather, I see it as a desperate delaying tactic on the part of the BMVg and an attempt to somehow reduce costs," Lehmann was quoted as saying in his statement.
He also calls on the BMVg to obtain a binding alternative offer for the realization of the project using the CH-53K from Sikorsky. “The BMVg must use the delay to also request a comparison offer for the competing model. On this basis, it can be determined whether the desired CH-47F model is still economical at all if all equipment requests of the BMVg are taken into account. But that just doesn't happen. That is why the Chinook billion grave is being confirmed more and more,” says Jens Lehmann.
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