Sikorsky aims to outsource production of utility helicopter and starts talks with South Korean manufacturer
Korean Airlines (KAL) Aerospace has begun discussions with Sikorsky over fuselage production for the UH-60L Black Hawk utility helicopter and could reactivate its assembly line for the type.
Industry sources say KAL, Aero Vodochody of the Czech Republic and Turkey’s Tusas Aerospace Industries have submitted bids to manufacture major components for the UH-60L, which Sikorsky hopes to outsource to create space at its Connecticut facility to produce new UH-60Ms. The US company is also considering shifting assembly of the UH-60L and derivatives to an overseas partner.
KAL assembled and manufactured cabins and stabilisers for over 130 Black Hawks under the terms of a South Korean programme that ended in 1999, and has kept UH-60 tooling in hopes of a follow-on sale. The company is lobbying South Korea’s army to purchase additional Black Hawks as either a gap-filler or substitute for Seoul’s proposed indigenous utility helicopter, which is to be developed under the Korean Helicopter Programme (KHP).
Seoul plans to select a foreign partner later this year to help Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) develop the new utility helicopter, but KAL and several foreign helicopter manufacturers believe this strategy is too ambitious and unaffordable.
In case the KHP effort is terminated, KAL and Sikorsky are preparing to offer more Black Hawks, and KAI could be offered workshare, including avionics integration and weaponisation.
KAL in 2003 launched a failed attempt to take over KAI, which currently holds the right to lead any new national military aircraft programme, in a bid to restart its military business.
Industry sources say Sikorsky is willing to outsource some UH-60L work to KAL, even if additional sales to South Korea fail to materialise. A company source confirms that KAL is negotiating a contract to supply Sikorsky with UH-60L cabins and/or stabilisers from 2007, but says the US firm has not decided whether to also shift assembly overseas.
Sikorsky plans to halt in-house UH-60L production by 2008 to make room for the UH-60M. However, there is still an estimated market for about 500 UH-60Ls and derivatives from international customers that do not require or cannot afford the more advanced variant.
BRENDAN SOBIE / SINGAPORE
Source: Flight International
