WASHINGTON (Reuters) - AgustaWestland, a unit of Italy's Finmeccanica SpA, has sued the U.S. Army to block its plans to buy 155 helicopters built by Europe's Airbus without a competition, arguing that its own helicopters would be cheaper to buy and operate.
AgustaWestland asked the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in Washington to issue a temporary restraining order barring the Army from awarding the contract to Airbus without a competition, according to the complaint filed Sept. 19.
The U.S. Army issued a notice to industry on Sept. 4, saying that it planned to buy only EC-145 helicopters to replace its fleet of primary training helicopters.
The Army plans to repurpose about 100 twin-engine UH-72A Airbus light utility helicopters that are being used in the field as training helicopters, and then buy 155 additional helicopters made by Airbus. The UH-72A helicopters are a modified version of Airbus's commercial EH-145 helicopter.
The Army's decision has also drawn criticism from Bell Helicopter, a unit of Textron Inc.
"The Army has acted unlawfully and unreasonably by restricting competition to only EC-145 helicopters and by not opening the competition for its requirements to other helicopter manufacturers," AgustaWestland wrote in its motion.
No comment was immediately available from the U.S. Army or AgustaWestland.
In the motion, AgustaWestland said other single-engine helicopters such as its AW119Kx helicopter, could meet the Army's needs, and would be cheaper to buy and operate.
It said the cost of each UH-72A helicopter was about $7.5 million, compared with $3.25 million for AgustaWestland's AW199Kx.
That meant the U.S. Army could save hundreds of millions of dollars by buying a different helicopter, the company said.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Ken Wills)