An uproar erupted over the current and planned fleets of Marine One presidential helicopters, after information on the White House”™s fleet of Sikorsky helicopters turned up on a computer in Iran ”“ and as Congress decried cost overruns by a rival contractor team that is testing a helicopter as a Marine One replacement.
Sikorsky is based in Stratford and is a subsidiary of Hartford-based United Technologies Corp.
AgustaWestland and Lockheed Martin Corp. beat out Sikorsky for a contract to replace the existing fleet of Marine One presidential helicopters, but have since fallen behind schedule and budget with the latest estimates at $270 million for each helicopter, or $11 billion in total.
President Obama said the cost overruns are an example of a defense procurement “gone amok,” and analysts questioned whether the government might kill the program.
Separately, Cranberry Township, Pa.-based Tiversa Inc. alerted government officials after tracing a leak of data on Sikorsky helicopters currently in use to a computer in Tehran. Tiversa indicated the information was likely obtained through a peer-to-peer networking program.
