Analysis of Rotary Aircraft Alternatives for NATO SOF Organic Air Wing.

摘要

NATO Special Operations Headquarters (NSHQ) is working to establish an organic special operations air wing. This includes a full program implementation of policy and standards development, manning, training, basing, and aircraft procurement and sustainment. This project addresses the issue of rotary aircraft procurement and sustainment. Building upon prior research conducted by NSHQ, it analyzes the previously recommended course of action of seeking an Excess Defense Article (EDA) grant of six SH-60s from the U.S. DoD. It compares the EDA SH-60 option with procurement of Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) LAKOTA aircraft. It also compares the establishment of organic NATO maintenance and logistics support capability with the option for Contractor Logistics Support (CLS) available with COTS LAKOTA procurement. The primary consideration in this analysis is life cycle cost, though qualitative considerations of ease of program implementation and sustainment are also considered. The conclusion is made that COTS LAKOTA procurement with a CLS package is likely to be less expensive and easier for NATO to implement and manage than EDA SH-60s with associated organic maintenance and logistics support.