Letter to James Mattis, Secretary of Defense - Continue Investing In Upstate NY & Renews Promise To Protect And Support Southern Tier Jobs

Letter

Dear Secretary Mattis:

I write to urge your continued support for three helicopter programs that are important to our national security and to regional economies across the country: The Air Force's Combat Rescue Helicopter (CSAR Recapitalization), the Presidential Helicopter (Executive Helo Development) and MH-60 Romeo Helicopter programs. Each of these platforms has an important presence in New York, supporting over 1,000 engineering, manufacturing, and production jobs. While the Department's support of funding for these programs is important to industry and rural economies in places across our nation, like Owego, New York, a continued investment is more important as these aircraft age and new security threats emerge.

The Combat Rescue Helicopter performs critical combat rescue and personnel recovery operations across the services. Over the past few years, these helicopters have participated in countless missions in Iraq and Afghanistan in support of our Joint and Coalition forces. The USAF needs to replace the current aging combat rescue helicopter fleet with aircraft capable of performing the demanding personnel recovery missions, including combat rescue and casualty evacuation. I ask for your support of this program in Fiscal Year 2018 and beyond.

The Presidential Helicopter Program (VH-92A) is the replacement helicopter for the VH-3D and VH-60N. This new fleet of VH-92A helicopters will continue providing safe and timely transportation for the President and Vice-President of the United States, as well as other heads of state and support the Presidential world-wide vertical-lift mission. I ask for your continued support of this program to ensure that replacement remains on schedule.

The MH-60 Romeo Naval Hawk is designed to support multi-mission helicopter requirements. The Romeo's primary missions are Antisubmarine Warfare (ASW) and SUW as well as Search and Rescue and Humanitarian Missions. Additional aircraft are needed per the Navy's new Force Structure Assessment. The current fleet of MH-60 aircraft are approaching the end of their service life due to high demand on the fleet. Based on age and aircraft utilization rates, the Navy will have to replace their in the mid-2030s. This will result in an inventory gap in the mid-2030's. To mitigate this shortfall, the Navy is planning a Service Life Extension Program (SLEP) beginning with the MH-60S in approximately 2023. While a SLEP is required to extend the life of the current fleet taking these aircraft out of service to perform the SLEP creates an inventory shortfall. To avoid a shortfall in inventory, I ask for your support SLEP Research and Development funds in FY18, as well as funding for mid-life upgrades.

Thank you for your attention to these items. Please do not hesitate to reach out to my office for any questions.

Sincerely,

Charles E. Schumer

United States Senator

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