Army asks Sikorsky to build four UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters and avionics for armed reconnaissance
REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala. – U.S. Army aviation experts are ordering four late-model UH-60M Black Hawk utility helicopters for missions like armed reconnaissance and troop transport, and search and rescue.
Officials of the Army Contracting Command at Redstone Arsenal, Ala., announced a $53.9 million order Friday to Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin company in Stratford, Conn., to provide the Army with four UH-60M helicopters.
The twin-engine UH-60M Black Hawk, the newest model of the Black Hawk family, can serve in extreme conditions, and is designed to replace the older UH-60A Black Hawk. It is the centerpiece of the Army's long-term effort to modernize the service's medium-lift helicopter fleet. Sikorsky has manufactured the Army Black Hawk since 1978.
Compared to earlier models of the Black Hawk, the UH-60M incorporates upgraded T700-GE-701D engines, improved rotor blades, and avionics that include modern electronic instrumentation, flight controls, and aircraft navigation control.
The UH-60M provides additional payload and range, advanced digital avionics, better handling qualities and situational awareness, active vibration control, improved survivability, and improved producibility. The UH-60M can fly as fast as 151 knots at altitudes to 15,180 feet to distances as far as 276 nautical miles between refuelings.
The UH-60M's new composite spar wide-chord blade provides 500 pounds more lift than the UH-60L blade. The General Electric T700-GE- 701D engine will add more horsepower and allow additional lift during external sling load operations.
The cockpit of the UH-60M helicopters include multi-function displays; flight management systems; modern flight control computers with fully coupled autopilot; an integrated vehicle health management system with flight data and cockpit voice recorder; inertial navigation systems with embedded global positioning systems; improved data modem; and improved heads-up displays. The narrower cockpit instrument panel will also significantly improve chin window visibility.
Sikorsky and the Army have had the UH-60M in full-rate production since late 2007, and by early 2009 the company had delivered it first 100 UH-60M rotorcraft to the Army.
On this contract Sikorsky will do the work in Stratford, Conn., and should be finished by June 2022. For more information contact Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin company, online at www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/capabilities/sikorsky.html, or the Army Contracting Command-Redstone at https://acc.army.mil/contractingcenters/acc-rsa.
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John Keller is the Editor-in-Chief, Military & Aerospace Electronics Magazine--provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronics and optoelectronic technologies in military, space and commercial aviation applications. John has been a member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since 1989 and chief editor since 1995.