Sikorsky Aircraft [UTX] has delivered to the U.S. Army the fourth of 15 UH-60M Black Hawk aircraft in response to an urgent need from the Swedish armed forces.
Patrik Dovskog, head of the Helicopter Systems Office, Swedish Defense Materiel Administration (FMV), said: “In April 2013 we shall be operational with three helicopters with the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan.”
There, the UH-60M helicopters will be used for medical evacuation, troop transport and logistics support and will be armed with a machine gun, Dovskog said in a Nov. 18 teleconference.
The Black Hawks are being procured under the Foreign Military Sales program, and respond to the Swedish armed forces’ urgent operational need in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, he said.
By the beginning of 2012, four helicopters will start operations in Sweden after the pilots and technicians complete training in the United States.
Sweden is increasing its fleet of medium/heavy helicopters, which includes a contract to buy 18 European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co.(EADS) NH 90 helicopters, Dovskog said. “Today we have the Super Pumas in ISAF with the unit. They will be replaced after 2013 due more-or-less to the age of the systems; they need upgrades to be able to conduct operations.” Super Puma’s are also produced by EADS.
John Pacelli, vice president, Sikorsky International Military Business, said the first helicopter was delivered fewer than four months after the contract, an option to the U.S. Army’s existing multiyear contract.
“We are going to be able to deliver all 15 of these aircraft about a year and a half in advance of what a normal lead time would be,” Pacelli said. Normally, the Black Hawk helicopter has a 22-month lead time.
Seven aircraft are on schedule for delivery to the Army through December, with eight additional deliveries through the fall of 2012.
“One of the things we’re able to do by building some aircraft on speculation annually is to be able to accommodate surge requirements that we would have from international customers such as Sweden or additional plus ups that may result from U.S. government budgeting either for the army or other government agencies, so we did not sacrifice at all, in any way shape or form, the Army production schedule to facilitate this,” Pacelli said.
The schedule was also helped because the Swedish FMV bought a configuration identical to that of the U.S. Army.
“The Black Hawk Utility Helicopter (UH-60) is the world’s best current and future force utility helicopter,” said Gregory Gore, deputy project manager, Army Utility Helicopters Project Office.
Sweden is the first European country to acquire the U.S. Army’s UH-60M Black Hawk aircraft. Introduced into service with the U.S. Army in 2007, the ‘M’ model is the latest variant of the medium-lift military utility helicopter.
Sweden’s aircraft come equipped from Sikorsky with an advanced flight control system to reduce pilot workload, full night vision device capability for night operations, and a state-of-the-art communications suite.
Once delivered to the Army, the service will install equipment such as a ballistic protection system, a rescue hoist, medical evacuation station, to the same configuration the U.S. Army is using in ISAF, Dovskog said. “We as a customer have succeeded getting this (accelerated) delivery schedule strictly following a strategy by saying we shall buy the same configuration the U.S. Army uses in Afghanistan, meaning we will take away the risk for the modification works.”
“There will be tremendous interoperability as a result of that,” Pacelli said.
Swedish aircrew–already flight qualified in UH-60M aircraft at the U.S. Army Aviation Center of Excellence, Fort Rucker, Ala.–will receive follow-on unit training at the Swedish Air Force base in Linkoping following the arrival of the first four unmodified aircraft in Sweden in early 2012.
Sikorsky Aerospace Services and Swedish defense and security company Saab will provide maintainer training and long-term logistics support for the fleet.
Black Hawk helicopters of all variants flown by the U.S. Army in the Iraq and Afghanistan have accumulated more than 1.3 million fleet flight hours without a single Class A material failure. The combined operational sortie rate in both theaters stands at 85 percent. The U.S. Army’s total Black Hawk helicopter fleet exceeds 1,945 aircraft, the company said in a statement. More than 3,000 Black Hawk helicopters of all variants are in use today, operating in 30 countries.