The UH-72A Lakota program: “A success of the first order”

This kind of makes me angry- and points out how truly stupid government procurement processes are. In 2007, it was pointed out that the UH72 helicopter (actually a Eurocopter EC145) had not met several key features, including a cabin that became too hot in desert conditions, inability to lift 2200 pounds, and other shortcomings. It was modified and became the UH72A. Still built by Eurocopter, only now in the USA under the name EADS North America.. In March of this year, this came out from the company "

American Eurocopter President and CEO Marc Paganini recalled the Lakota program’s aggressive schedule, which enabled the first UH-72A to be delivered in December 2006 – only months after the Army’s Light Utility Helicopter award in June of the same year.  

“We built this new plant in less than one year, we’ve successfully transferred the full production line from Germany, we’re hiring and training more than 300 employees, and our team has trained over 500 U.S. Army pilots and 200 of the service’s mechanics,” Paganini said.   “With the Lakota fleet having already flown more than 25,000 hours, American Eurocopter and EADS North America take great pride in supporting our armed forces.”

OK, so then the US Army posts a story about "Army's newest helicopter now flying in Europe" on April 23, 2010.

The Army's first UH-72A Lakota helicopter to reach Europe is off-loaded on Ramstein Air Base, April 13. The aircraft will be used by the Joint Multinational Readiness Center at Hohenfels, Germany. The Lakota, an advanced rotary-wing aircraft, is produced by American Eurocopter, a business unit of European Aeronautics Defense and Space.

"The Lakota is the military version of an existing aircraft - the EC 145 Eurocopter - it was actually designed in Donauwoerth, Germany, which makes it even better suited for the training mission here," said Bill Bennett, a contract field service representative with American Eurocopter.

Meeting the Army's commercial off-the-shelf acquisition strategy for light utility helicopters also equates to time and money saved for research and development as well as acquisition.

OK. So the US contracts a European company to build a plant in the USA, move a bunch of production equipment from Germany to the USA, set up the factory, build the helicopters, test fly them, disassemble them, load them in USAF C-5's, fly the disassembled helicopters  to Germany, when they are reassembled and put into service...got it?

My question is, if they know how many they were sending to Germany, wouldn't it have been cheaper just to buy them IN GERMANY instead??