PUBLIC LAW 99-661—NOV. 14, 1986
100 STAT. 3987
SEC. 1312. SPECIAL OPERATIONS AIRLIFT
(a) MODIFICATION OF EXISTING AIRCRAFT.—Of the funds appropriated for fiscal year 1987 for modification of Air Force aircraft, $106,500,000 shall be available only for the modification of CH/HH-53 airframes to the "PAVE LOW" enhanced configuration. (b) DEVELOPMENT OF HELICOPTER VARIANTS.—(1) The Secretary of
the Army shall proceed, through full and open competition, with development of an MH-47 variant of the CH-47 helicopter. The Secretary shall be designated as the executive agent for a joint services development program for a special operations/combat rescue variant of the HH/MH-60 helicopter. (2) In conducting such development under paragraph (1), the Secretary shall ensure— (A) that there is developed one baseline H-60 aircraft capable of operations from both land and shipboard; (B) that there is maximum practicable logistics commonality Contract. among those aircraft to be procured by either the Army, Navy, or Air Force and that the contract for acquisition of the joint services aircraft assures maximum economic-order quantity benefits to the United States; and (C) that there is maximum practicable commonality between the avionics architecture selected for the HH/MH-60 variant aircraft and the MH-47 variant aircraft. (3) Upon successful development and test of the MH-47 aircraft, Report. the Secretary of Defense shall submit to the Committees on Armed Services of the Senate and the House of Representatives a report on such development and testing. Such report shall include the Secretary's recommendation as to whether the replacement for the HH-53 aircraft as the long-range, strategic rotary-wing aircraft for the Armed Forces should be the MH-47 aircraft or a special operations/combat rescue variant of the CV-22A aircraft (or another advanced-technology aircraft). If the recommendation of the Secretary is in favor of the CV-22A aircraft (or another advancedtechnology aircraft), the Secretary of the Army may justify in the budget planning process procurement of the MH-47 aircraft as necessary to fill immediately the heavy-lift mission requirements of the Special Operations Aviation Brigade of the Army. (4) Upon successful development and test of the HH/MH-60 Report. helicopter under paragraph (1), the Secretary of Defense shall submit to the Committees on Armed Services of the Senate and House of Representatives a report containing a detailed acquisition strategy for such helicopter. Such acquisition strategy shall— (A) provide for timely and adequate procurement of the HH/MH-60 aircraft for the Special Operations Aviation Brigade of the Army and for aviation detachments assigned to individual Special Forces groups; (B) provide for timely and adequate procurement of the HH/MH-60 aircraft for support of naval special warfare units and for fleet combat search and rescue missions; and (C) provide for timely and adequate replacement for theater special operations/combat search and rescue HH-3 helicopters of the Air Force with the HH/MH-60 helicopter. (c) REQUIREMENTS OF SPECIAL OPERATIONS COMMANDER.—(1)
The
commander of the unified combatant command established pursuant to section 167 of title 10, United States Code (as added by section
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