The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) in May denied Airbus' February protest at losing US Navy's TH-57 Sea Ranger training helicopter replacement contract to Leonardo, while also dispelling a widely held assumption that Airbus had overbid the competition. The GAO report stated that Airbus had protested primarily that the Navy's technical evaluation of the bidders' proposed aircraft was flawed. The Navy selected Leonardo's single-engine instrument flight rules (IFR) certified TH-119 platform with an estimated $1.39B program cost over Airbus' H135 twin at an estimated $1.31B, as well as incumbent Bell's single-engine IFR-certified 407GXi. (Sources: Vertical)
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