LONDON — Britain’s defense secretary has committed to a deal to amass a brand new fleet of Boeing-built extended-range Chinook helicopters.
Fourteen CH-47-ER Chinooks, destined principally to be used by British special forces, can be delivered to the Royal Air Force under the terms of the deal signed between the British and U.S. governments.
Defense Secretary Grant Shapps on Thursday confirmed the procurement, often known as the Chinook Capability Sustainment Program, will advance.
The defense ministry originally confirmed the deal in May 2021, but talks to finish the negotiations were slowed by British concerns about cost growth and other issues.
The British set the baseline budget for this system at £1.5 billion (U.S. $1.9 billion) but inflation, foreign exchange and other problems increased costs.
At one point throughout the negotiations last yr, then-defense secretary Ben Wallace was widely reported within the U.K. to have threatened to cancel this system as a consequence of spiraling costs.
Giving evidence to the Parliamentary defense committee in November, Shapps said he too had raised the difficulty of axing the procurement with U.S. officials.
“We now have to weigh up the price of exiting a contract in addition to going into one,” he told the committee. “I even have discussed the difficulty with [U.S. Defense Secretary] Lloyd Austin.”
Procurement minister James Cartlidge told Parliament last yr Britain’s weakening exchange rate against the U.S. dollar alone had cost this system £37 million as of Sept. 11, 2023.
In a press release Thursday, the defense ministry said negotiations with the U.S. government had produced a price reduction.
“The U.K. has reduced costs for elements of this system by greater than £300 million, ensuring value for money whilst providing our armed forces with a cutting-edge heavy lift capability,” the ministry said, though it didn’t release the entire cost of this system or details in regards to the reductions.
The present delivery schedule has not been made public, although a web site operated by the Defence Equipment & Support arm of the defense ministry says the primary delivery is ready for 2027 with a producing program end of 2029.
The brand new airframes will replace probably the most obsolescent Chinooks in an Royal Air Force fleet that’s currently shrinking CH-47 numbers from 60 helicopters to 51. The 14 oldest Chinooks can be retired from the U.K. fleet as the brand new machines enter service.
No decision has yet been made on what is going to occur to the Chinooks once they are pensioned off .
The general size of the British Chinook fleet will remain at 51 aircraft as the brand new aircraft are delivered and the oldest aircraft are retired.
The extended-range helicopter could have double the range of normal CH-47s operated by the Royal Air Force and help fill a special forces capability gap created by the early retirement of Lockheed Martin-made Hercules C-130s last yr.
In a press release, Boeing said it looks forward to delivering the helicopters.
The extended-range Chinook buy is the second major British helicopter procurement to advance recently.
In late February, the defense ministry triggered the beginning of a near £1.2 billion competition to exchange Puma and a few smaller helicopters in what’s often known as the Recent Medium Helicopter program. Airbus, Leonardo and Lockheed Martin are all expected to reply.
Andrew Chuter is the UK correspondent for Defense News.