CSAR Shift

An omnibus reprogramming request submitted to Congress on June 30 would shift $10 million in research and development money appropriated for the CSAR-X program, which was canceled two years ago.

The omnibus reprogramming request, signed by Defense Department Comptroller Robert Hale, involves the transfer of some $6 billion among DOD accounts, and one section of the document focuses on funds appropriated in fiscal year 2010. One of those FY-10 items involves slightly more than $10 million in research, development, test and evaluation accounts for the CSAR-X, which then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates killed in June 2009. The Air Force has since replaced the initiative with a competition for a new combat-search-and-rescue helicopter known as HH-60 Recap.

Boeing won the original CSAR-X competition in 2006, but protests from other contractors prevented work on the project for years, leading Gates to cancel it. The reprogramming request, if approved, would still leave $4 million in the CSAR-X RDT&E account.