US DoD awards USD525 million contract modification for Black Hawk production

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US DoD awards USD525 million contract modification for Black Hawk production | Jane's 360

Gareth Jennings, London - Jane's Defence Weekly

10 March 2020


The US Department of Defense (DoD) has awarded Sikorsky a USD525.4 million contract modification to manufacture 40 UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters for the US Army and international customers, it announced on 10 March.

The modification to the DoD's Multi-Year 9 (MY9) contract covers 38 helicopters for the US Army and two for one-or-more unnamed Foreign Military Sales (FMS) customer(s). The original MY9 award made in July 2017 covered USD3.8 billion worth of helicopters for the US and Saudi Arabia. It could be that this modification covers this particular FMS nation as well or it could be for another nation, such as Croatia which has recently been cleared by the US government to buy two UH-60Ms.

This MY9, Program Year 4, Lot 44 award adds to the 142 UH-60M utility helicopters for the US Army, as well as the 40 UH-60M and 75 HH-60M medical evacuation Black Hawks for the Saudi Arabia National Guard that made-up the original MY9 contract that is set to run through to 30 June 2022.

As well as programme system management, engineering, technical data, and publications, the MY9 contract included options for a further 103 helicopters and would be worth USD5.2 billion should all of the options be exercised. With this latest modification, options for a further 60 helicopters remain.

The UH-60M is the newest Black Hawk variant in service and incorporates more powerful and reliable General Electric T700-GE-701D engines, enhanced rotor blades, and a fully digital 'glass' cockpit. According to Jane's World Armies , the US Army currently fields close to 2,000 Black Hawk helicopters of all variants.


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UH-60M: Details