UH-60M
Saudi Arabia to receive 17 Blackhawk
helicopters from Sikorsky
By James LaPorta
| Jan. 12, 2018 at 9:28 AM
Jan. 12 (UPI) -- The U.S. Army has awarded Sikorsky a
contract worth nearly $200 million for 17 unique UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters
for Saudi Arabia.
The terms of the deal were announced Thursday by the
Department of Defense. The agreement reached between the Army and Sikorsky, a
Lockheed Martin company, is worth more than $193.8 million under the terms of a
firm-fixed-price foreign military sale.
Saudi Arabia is expected to receive eight UH-60Ms for the
Saudi Arabian National Guard, while the other nine will go to the Royal Saudi
Land Forces Airborne Special Security Forces.
The UH-60M Blackhawk aircraft has been in use by military
forces around the world since it was first introduced in 1979. For the U.S.,
the Blackhawk has been used in multiple operational roles, from insertion and
extraction of ground forces to being the primary aircraft of choice for medical
evacuation missions.
Over the years, multiple variants and versions of the
original UH-60 design have been manufactured. The Blackhawk aircraft gained
national attention in May 2011, after a stealth Black Hawk helicopter crashed
in Abbottabad, Pakistan, during the raid on al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden's
compound by members of SEAL Team Six.
Work on the contract will occur in Stratford, Conn., and
is expected to be completed by December 2022.
More than $11.1 million will be obligated to Sikorsky at
the time of award, which has been allocated from fiscal year 2018 foreign
military sales, the Pentagon said.
Original post: upi.com
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