U.S. Strategic Commander Gen. John Hyten was left fuming on Tuesday when asked during a Senate hearing why he doesn’t have state-of-the-art helicopters to protect America’s nuclear arsenal.
“We’ve been building combat helicopters for a long time in this country, I don’t understand why the heck it is so hard to buy a helicopter,” Hyten told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
“I can’t even describe how upset I get about the helicopter replacement program. It’s just — it’s a helicopter for gosh sakes,” Hyten said. “We ought to be able to go out and buy a helicopter and put it in the hands of the people that need it. And we should be able to do that quickly.”
Hyten’s tirade disarmed Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who was preparing to grill the general over the delays in getting a replacement for the Vietnam-era Hueys that have been assigned to 37th Helicopter Squadron at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming, which will protect Minuteman missile fields.
“Your very forthright and valuable responses just eliminate a whole line of questions that I was going to have for you,” Blumenthal responded.
In early February, the Air Force announced a second request for proposal for the UH-1N Huey replacement program, but none of the companies who make potential replacement helicopters were able to meet all the threshold requirements.
The Air Force now hopes to award the contract in fiscal year 2018, and the first operational helicopter should be delivered in either fiscal year 2020 or 2021, nearly two decades after the need for new helicopter protect its nuclear missile bases was identified.
“I wrote the requirements document for that helicopter when I was direct requirements of Air Force base in 2007,” Hyten testified. “And now it’s 2017. Ten years later and we’re still arguing about a helicopter.”
Hyten says he pulled that request for a temporary replacement for because he wants “all hands on deck” to get a new helicopter into the force as soon as possible.
“All I can tell you, senator,” Hyten told Blumenthal, “is as the commander of Strategic Command, I will put every influence I can on the United States Air Force deliver that capability sooner rather than later.”
