USAF releases RFP for next SAR helicopter

The Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition announced 22 October the posting of the Combat Rescue Helicopter (CRH) Request for Proposal (RFP) to the Federal Business Opportunities website, signalling the official launch of what the US Air Force (USAF) described as a high-priority acquisition programme.

The RFP defines an integrated, capability-based, best-value approach, said the USAF, and also includes specific factors for assessing the capabilities and risks inherent in each offer and identifies four goal requirements: hover performance, combat radius, payload and cabin space. The primary mission of the CRH air vehicle is to recover isolated personnel from hostile or denied territory; it will also execute humanitarian missions, civil search and rescue (SAR), disaster relief, casualty and medical evacuation, and non-combatant evacuation operations, said the USAF.

The Air Force explained that the programme will replace the its ageing HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopter fleet with new air vehicles, training systems, and product support elements as required for the personnel-recovery mission. The CRH requirement is for 112 aircraft. The USAF’s plans include leveraging in-production air vehicles and training systems while integrating existing technologies to deliver this new combat capability.

Prior to this announcement, officials from Air Combat Command, Department of the Air Force and Office of the Secretary of Defense participated in an acquisition review process for CRH to ensure the source-selection process is executable as written, reduces risk, and will deliver the military a product that meets the requirement at an affordable price.

More information can be found at http://tinyurl.com/waypoint-rfp