DriftARH-70 Arapaho
ARH-70 · Army · Bell · cancelled
+68%
$3.4B (2005) → $5.7B (2007)
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Baseline
$3.4B (2005)
Current estimate
$5.7B (2007)
Cost growth
+68%
Units
368 → 512
Quantity change
+39%
Unit-cost change
+21%
IOC
2011 (planned) → Cancelled 2008
Schedule slip
—
Cost basis
BY
Confidence
high · reconciled
An off-the-shelf helicopter that stopped being off-the-shelf: unit cost rose 21% even as the planned buy grew 39%, and three years after development start the Pentagon shut it down rather than certify the breach — contract terminated, 0 fielded.
Documented events
- 2008Nunn-McCurdy breach (critical)
- 2008Not certified — terminated
Source: GAO-08-467SP, ARH profile pp.43-44 — constant FY2008 $M: first full estimate 07/2005 $3,407.7M / 368 helicopters vs 08/2007 $5,728.3M / 512; unit cost +20.8%; cycle 47 → 72 months. GAO-09-326SP p.152: after a critical Nunn-McCurdy breach (notified Jul 2008), USD(AT&L) declined to certify and DoD ended the program Oct 2008.
Drift — an independent project by Aous Abdo · Analytica DSS, built from public GAO, CRS and DoD sources. Cost growth has many causes; a larger number is not by itself evidence of mismanagement. How this is built · Explore the data →