The U.S. Marine Corps is aware of issues with the new Sikorsky VH-92 Presidential Helicopter’s communication system raised in a new report on tests done with the aircraft around Washington, D.C., and is working to correct the deficiencies before it enters service ferrying the U.S. president as “Marine One.”

Bloomberg News in late November reported that the helicopter, based on the commercial Sikorsky S-92, was “failing to meet the reliability, availability or maintainability threshold requirements,” according to a report on the aircraft’s initial operational testing released in September as “controlled unclassified” information. 

“All items noted in the report are being addressed to the satisfaction of the U.S. Marine Corps and the White House,” Megan Wasel, a spokesperson for the Marine Corps Aviation Program Executive Office, told Vertical in an email. “Specific capabilities of any presidential support platform are not for public release due to” operational security.

The VH-92A successfully completed initial operational test and evaluation (IOT&E) in April 2021, according to the Marine Corps. Bloomberg obtained a copy of a report summarizing findings from that initial testing, which is required prior to the aircraft entering service. 

“The report (released in September 2021) cited no new discoveries,” Wasel said.

The VH-92 program, a $5 billion effort to replace the current fleet of VH-3D Sea King helicopters that move the U.S. president, vice president and their entourage short distances usually in the Washington, D.C., area, has had its share of setbacks. Exhaust from the aircraft’s twin General Electric CT7-8A engines, coupled with the helicopter’s downwash, scorched the lawn at the White House and Camp David during test landings, an issue which has been fixed, according to Sikorsky and the Marine Corps. 

At issue in the most recent report is the all-important Mission Communication System, a government-supplied suite of electronics that “provide the capability to conduct short- and long-range, secure and nonsecure voice and data communications,” according to the U.S. military’s 2020 annual report from the Director of Test and Evaluation (DOTE). The MCS is designed to provide both situational awareness to pilots and passengers inside the aircraft, and to exchange information with outside agencies and supporting aircraft. 

While the presidential helicopter’s primary mission is ferrying VIPs to and from Andrews Air Force Base, Camp David, the White House and elsewhere, it also must serve as an emergency evacuation platform for the president and other government officials in the event of a crisis, called the “contingency operation mission.”

During simulated contingency operations, the MCS did not perform properly, delaying critical communications between the aircraft and other agencies and aircraft, according to the report obtained by Bloomberg. 

Sikorsky, owned by Lockheed Martin, installs the MCS hardware and baseline software and conducts systems checks on behalf of the government in Owego, New York. For its part, Sikorsky continues to build the aircraft and work with the government to correct developmental issues.

“We continue to build VH-92A presidential aircraft and are pleased our customer awarded us a contract for the final five production helicopters earlier this year,” a Sikorsky spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “Sikorsky continues to work closely with our customer to ensure the aircraft meets all operational requirements.”

Though not yet in service, several VH-92A aircraft have frequented the skies around Washington, D.C., while initial testing was conducted by NAVAIR out of Naval Air Station Patuxent River, south of the U.S. capital on the western Maryland shore of the Chesapeake Bay. One of the new helicopters was spotted over D.C. as recently as Nov. 22.

According to the 2020 DOTE report, the most recent publicly available analysis of various high-dollar U.S. military development programs, the Marine Corp’s Integrated Test Team began evaluation of the third version of the VH-92 MCS in January 2020. It then showed improvement over previous iterations of the software, according to the report. Deficiencies in the system were already identified before testing began and corrections were made to address them at the time, the report said. 

“The Program Office has been addressing MCS deficiencies, discovered in testing,” the 2020 DOTE report said. “The ITT has tested five iterative releases of MCS 3.1 software. . . . MCS reliability needs additional improvements to meet the demands for operational employment. Design changes in hardware are needed, particularly intercommunication system cords, to improve the usability of communications equipment at different passenger seats in the aircraft.”

Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) continues to make improvements on the MCS and began testing a new version of the software called MCS 3.2 in January 2021. 

In August, Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Greg Masiello, program executive officer for air anti-submarine warfare, assault, and special mission programs at NAVAIR, said the new helicopter was ready to carry President Joe Biden whenever the White House Military Office declared it fit for service.

“The squadron and the program are ready today,” Masiello said in August. “So, we have enough aircraft for the initial usage. We have enough pilots that are trained. We have the support equipment. We have all that kind of stuff.”

The Marine Corps plans to buy 23 VH-92s, which each cost $217 million, according to the Government Accountability Office’s 2021 assessment of major Defense Department programs. Plans were to declare initial operational capability in July, which itself was a delay from an initial scheduled entry to service in mid-2020. 

“The Presidential Helicopters program office is in close coordination with the USMC and White House to ensure that the improved reliability and capabilities offered by the VH-92A, as compared to the current presidential support helicopters, are seamlessly transitioned into the presidential support mission,” Wasel said. “VH-92A tasking for presidential support will be at the discretion of the White House Military Office. The VH-92A remains within budgeted cost and schedule as approved by congress.”