The Navy awarded Lockheed Martin [LMT] a $364 million firm-fixed-price contract order for six Sikorsky MH-60R Seahawk helicopters on Oct. 26 for Norway.
The DoD contract announcement said delivery of the helicopters should be finished by July 2027.
This order follows an April approval by the State Department for a potential Foreign Military Sale to Norway for these helicopters at a cost of about $1 billion total (Defense Daily, April 26).
At the time, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) said the sale would improve Norway’s capability to conduct Coast Guard missions alongside secondary missions like vertical replenishment and communications relay.
After the contract was announced, Lockheed Martin said the MH-60Rs will allow Norway to perform missions like search and rescue and coastal and offshore patrol.
The MH-60R FMS approval also included 12 installed and three spare General Electric [GE] T-700-GE-401C engines, nine Link 16 Multifunctional Information Distribution Systems Joint Tactical Radio Systems (six installed, three spares), and other helicopters systems, sonars and support services.
The head of the Air Systems Division of the Norwegian Defence Materiel Agency, Brigadier General Jarle Nergård, said this helicopter has a “long and proven track record of reliability and flexibility in operational environments similar to those faced by the Norwegian Air Force and Coast Guard. This is why we believe the MH-60R is the solution that best meets Norway’s current requirements, and why we are very pleased to see this contract moving forward.”
Capt. William Hargreaves, program manager, H-60 Multi-mission Helicopter Program Office, said the MH-60R is designed for “all aspects of land and maritime operations from the vast majority of air-capable ships,” so they are confident this choice will support Norway’s Coast Guard.
This order comes amid increasing orders for MH-60Rs internationally. Lockheed Martin Sikorsky said it has delivered 300 MH-60Rs to five countries thus far, with 64 more on order or in production for Australia, Greece, India, South Korea, and now Norway.
This order immediately follows a $379.6 million order for eight Seahawks for Spain earlier this month, focused on the helicopter’s anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare capabilities (Defense Daily, Oct. 13).
Last year, the Navy awarded Lockheed Martin a $504 million order for the 12 MH-60Rs bound for Australia, which will also use them for anti-surface and anti-submarine warfare as well as vertical replenishment, search and rescue and communications relay (Defense Daily, Aug. 30, 2022).
In 2021, the Navy awarded the company a $447 million order for 12 Seahawks for South Korea (Defense Daily, April 13, 2021).