Copter work key for EADS

'This is where the action is,' says former chief of NASA

Sean O'Keefe has been CEO of EADS North America for only a week, but as the former head of NASA and a longtime public servant in the defense arena, he's intimately familiar with Huntsville.

"What impressed me immediately is that this is a critical location for our company," he said Friday in an interview at The Times.

Huntsville is home to Redstone Arsenal, which is home to the Army Aviation and Missile Life Cycle Management Command and all programs related to helicopters.

"That's a big, big, big cornerstone of what we do," O'Keefe said. "What happens in Huntsville matters to our company, a lot."

EADS - European Aeronautic Defence and Space - is the world's largest aerospace company. Its divisions include Airbus, Eurocopter and Astrium space services, and it partners with many U.S. contractors, including Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin.

Along with Sikorsky and a team of American suppliers, EADS builds the UH-72A Lakota Light Utility Helicopter for the Army, National Guard and Navy at a plant in Columbus, Miss. EADS manages the helicopter's production from its 20-person office in Cummings Research Park.

The company has already delivered 90 of an ordered 350 of the unarmed, twin-engined helicopter - it's based on American Eurocopter's EC145 aircraft - which is being used for search and rescue, medical evacuation, observation and other tasks.

EADS and Lockheed are developing a weapons-carrying, advanced derivative of the Lakota called the Armed Scout 645. It will compete to replace the Army's aging fleet of Kiowa helicopters. That could be a huge contract - as much as $7 billion - and O'Keefe pointed out that, with the Army basing its aviation and helicopter program offices in Huntsville, it's important for EADS to be here, too.

"This is where the action is," he said.

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