28 January 2005

(Royal) Marine One

Well, at least it didn't go to the French.

A trans-Atlantic bid spearheaded by US defence firm Lockheed Martin has won the contract to build new helicopters for US President George W Bush.

Lockheed Martin beat off competition from Sikorsky, which has built Marine One helicopters for about 50 years.

Victory for the Anglo-Italian design is expected to help Lockheed's bids for up to $6bn in upcoming defence contracts.

Now, if the article were fair, it would note that the helicopters aren't specifically for President Bush, they're for whoever happens to be holding the office of the American Presidency at any given time. President Bush currently rides on the same helicopter(s) that Clinton rode on, and Bush, Sr. rode on, et cetera. The current Marine One design is fairly old.

But that's the BBC for you.

UPDATE: For crying out loud, the bias and unrelated information in this article is just astounding.

The Lockheed bid, designed by AgustaWestland, was backed by British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Italian leader Silvio Berlusconi, both supporters of the US-led military campaign in Iraq.

What do Blair and Berlusconi and their collective participation in the Coalition of the Willing have to do with these helicopters? Absolutely nothing.

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