EADS says Pentagon ending helicopter program: The US Defense Department has decided to stop buying EADS Lakota helicopters for the Army next year, according to the head of the European aerospace's US-based unit.
"The Lakota is built by a highly skilled workforce, more than half of which are military veterans, at my company's Columbus, Mississippi, helicopter production facility," Sean O'Keefe, chairman and chief executive of EADS North America, said in an opinion article on the Defense News website.
"The Army has decided it's time to end this record of accomplishment next year," O'Keefe said, criticizing the across-the-board "sequester" federal budget cuts imposed by Congress.
"The Pentagon budget would do things such as slash its most successful helicopter program, the UH-72A Lakota, a low-cost program with more than 260 on-time and on-cost deliveries," he said.
The US Army had no one immediately available to comment on the article.
