Boeing has been awarded an $80 million contract to build four new MH-47G Chinook helicopters for the U.S. Army’s 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment. The deal, announced Thursday by the Department of Defense, is a cost-plus-fixed-fee delivery order and will fulfill an urgent need to sustain U.S. Special Operations Forces (SOF) heavy assault, rotary wing aircraft is required and to mitigate the impact of the MH-47G aircraft availability in light of increased SOF operational demands
Fiscal procurement funds amounting to more than $80 million will be obligated at the time of the award. A majority of the work will be performed in Ridley Park, Pennsylvania. This delivery order is a non-competitive award in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1, the statement says. Fiscal 2018 procurement funds in the amount of $33,729,096; and fiscal 2018 aircraft procurement, Army (APA) funds in the amount of $47,000,000 shall be obligated at time of award. A majority of the work will be performed in Ridley Park, Pennsylvania, it added.
The Boeing MH-47G is a special operations variant of the CH-47 Chinook multi-role, heavy-lift helicopter, used in heavy-lift missions such as the transportation of troops, ammunition, vehicles, equipment, fuel and supplies, as well as civil and humanitarian relief missions. The twin-rotor aircraft has been in use since its first iteration, the CH-47, was introduced in 1962 to transport troops and large payloads at high speed and long ranges. The MH-47G, the most recent upgrade of the helicopter, has been in use by the 160th “Nightstalker” Special Operations Aviation Regiment since the first model was delivered in 2014.
