Service reveals expanded new-build programme for UH-60M utility helicopter
New details of a US Army strategy approved last month to buy new-build Sikorsky UH-60M Black Hawks reveal that the programme is also being accelerated rapidly. The new strategy, which replaces a plan to remanufacture 1,213 older airframes to the new M-model standard, also moves the programme forward by five years, says Col Cory Mahanna, programme manager for utility helicopters.
The army is requesting funds to buy 86 UH-60s in fiscal years 2006 and 2007, including 24 UH-60Ls and 62 new-build UH-60Ms. A further 306 Black Hawks – all UH-60Ms – are to be purchased up to 2011 under the new plans. Sikorsky is now tasked with building 1,227 new UH-60Ms over the next 15 years.
That fleet, supplemented by 589 UH-60Ls, will sustain the army beyond 2027, serving as a common platform for strike, troop transport, command and control and medical evacuation missions, Mahanna told the Army Aviation Association of America's (AAAA) annual convention.
The new-build policy is a striking turn of events for Sikorsky. In a 12-month period starting in February 2004, the company suffered the army's termination of the RAH-66 Comanche, cancellation of the Unmanned Combat Armed Rotorcraft (UCAR) project and the loss of the US Navy's VXX programme to replace the US presidential helicopter fleet. The army announced the plan to convert to a Black Hawk new-build strategy in late January, citing a small cost increase compared to the previous remanufacturing plan.
Neither the army nor Sikorsky wants to elaborate on the precise cost differential until the first low-rate initial production contract is signed later this year. The army then plans to award a multi-year contract for FY07 to FY11. Two years ago, the army had planned to spend $2.1 billion over the next four years on UH-60 helicopter modifications, which included the UH-60M remanufacturing account, according to the army's budget justification documents.
The service now plans to spend more than $3.5 billion on the UH-60M alone over the same period.
Source: Flight International
