The current production contract for the US and Foreign Military Sales customers had been set to conclude in 2027.
Sikorsky and the US Army have reached a deal to extend production of the iconic UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter through at least 2028.
The contract for 16 UH-60Ms at a total cost of $356 million announced by the Pentagon on 17 September appears modest at face value, considering the US Army operates roughly 2,300 Black Hawks. However, it represents a significant win for Sikorsky, for which the UH-60 is currently a central business pillar.
“The contract won’t be fixed at 16,” says Sikorsky general manager Rich Benton. “If additional demand or funding becomes available in the next six months, that 16 may grow to a larger number that we’ll build in that same first year.”
Benton says the structure of the new contract will allow Sikorsky to add additional aircraft “very quickly” for either the US Army or Foreign Military Sales (FMS) customers.
The current multi-year production deal providing new UH-60Ms for both the US Army and overseas FMS buyers was set to conclude in mid-2027, potentially leaving Sikorsky with a significant revenue gap. When the army signed the contract in 2022, it suggested that deal would be its final order for the Black Hawk, which first entered service in the 1980s.
Sikorsky has been in negotiations for several years to secure a follow-on multi-year contract to extend UH-60M production out to 2032, by which time the company hopes to have brought a new suite of products to market, such as the autonomous Nomad rotor-blown wing and uncrewed U-Hawk cargo
The contract announced on 17 September is not a full multi-year production contract. But it does give Sikorsky a path to maintain Black Hawk production and the 55,000 US workers who are part of the rotorcraft’s supply chain.
Benton says Sikorsky forecasts potential demand of up to 150 Black Hawks over the next five years, including both domestic and FMS customers. He says the company needs to be producing at least 20 per year, along with sustainment work for the existing fleet, to maintain its existing industrial capacity.
“We see years where we think it could be as high as 30 or even potentially 40. This year we’re doing roughly 60 Black Hawks,” Benton notes. “So we definitely have the capacity to do more. But we’re going to scale down to, I would say, a more nominal rate, so we don’t have the sine wave type effect. And think of that as the 20 a year.”
The US Army is under considerable budgetary strain, as Washington shifts its spending priorities toward the navy and air force, which were somewhat neglected during 20 years of counterinsurgency wars in the Middle East.
The army is seeking to divest older rotorcraft to support modernisation priorities like the Bell MV-75 Cheyenne II tiltrotor.
That is placing pressure on traditional rotorcraft suppliers like Boeing and Sikorsky, who still need orders to maintain their highly specialised engineering and manufacturing workforces.
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