24 Years and Counting....(Updated)

The U.S. Army spent two decades and billions of dollars on the Comanche armed reconnaissance helicopter, before canceling it in 2004 in favor of what it called "off the shelf" alternatives. Turns out, that's not easy either -- the Army is ordering Bell to stop work on the armed reconnaissance helicopter, Flight International reports.

* The US Army **has told **Bell to stop work on the troubled ARH-70 Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter (ARH) programme *and given the company 30 days to come up with a plan to overcome spiralling costs and schedule delays. The ARH is intended to replace the army’s Bell OH-58D Kiowa Warrior.

Let's see: the Comanche was started in 1983, and ended in 2004. It's now 2007. Next year, Comanche would have been 25 years old, and the Army still doesn't have a new armed reconnaissance helicopter, off-the-shelf or otherwise. That's not quite a record, I suspect, but it's still impressive.

Update:

Our friends at Inside Defense have this additional info about the ARH helicopter's fate:

The move follows a special high-level review of the ARH program convened
Tuesday by Claude Bolton, the Army's acquisition executive. Sources with
knowledge of the review say the Army Systems Acquisition Review Council,
which Bolton leads, recommended terminating the ARH contract with Bell.

Acting Army Secretary Pete Geren, however, overruled that proposal and
opted instead to give the prime contractor one final crack at addressing
the service's concerns with the program, which was slated to transition
this spring from development into low-rate production with a new
contract to build at least three dozen aircraft.