£7 Billion U.K. Helicopter Project Halted - Wall Street Journal

BY JONATHAN BUCK

LONDON—The British government Tuesday scrapped a contract worth about £7 billion ($11.28 billion) to provide search-and-rescue helicopter services due to irregularities in the bidding process.

The contract had been awarded last year as a private finance initiative after a four-year competition, and services were due to be phased in from 2012. Soteria, the preferred bidder in the competition, planned to deploy Sikorsky S-92 helicopters to replace the Sikorsky S-61 Sea Kings as part of a new, harmonized service under the auspices of the Ministry of Defence and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency. But Tuesday's decision has put the project on ...