Word: kiowa
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...would be an expensive machine to lose in combat, so the Army began searching for a cheaper, smaller scout and observation chopper. It settled on the OH-58 Kiowa. The contractor, Bell Helicopter, apparently followed the time-honored practice of "buying into" a contract by submitting an artificially low initial estimate. Within two years, the projected cost of the total scout program doubled, from $1.3 billion to $2.7 billion, even though the number of aircraft to be bought was reduced from 720 to 578. Part of the problem is that the scout's complex laser sight has run into...