CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Goodrich Corporation has received a contract from the U.S. Army to provide up to 1,000 Vehicle Health Management Systems (VHMS) for UH-60A/L Black Hawk helicopters. The five-year Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract is potentially valued at up to $300 million and covers deliveries through 2013. The VHMS will be produced by Goodrich's Sensors and Integrated Systems operations in Vergennes, VT.
The VHMS monitors the entire helicopter mechanical drive train from the engines to the rotor system, flight manual exceedances, and hundreds of aircraft system signals. The system also includes a cockpit voice flight data recorder and crash survivable memory unit. Advanced information provided by VHMS alerts operators to take preventative maintenance steps that avoid collateral damage and more costly future repairs. Goodrich VHMS systems have been battlefield proven on the UH-60 and CH-47D during Army deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.
"Strong endorsement from soldiers in the field led to equipping the legacy Black Hawk fleet with the VHMS system," says Kip Freeman, Business Director, Goodrich Sensors and Integrated Systems.
"The Goodrich VHMS system has proven to be a great benefit by increasing readiness and safety while reducing the maintenance burden on soldiers," says Col. L. Neil Thurgood, Utility Helicopters Project Manager, U.S. Army. "Recent Army studies show the system also reduces costs and soldier burden by reducing maintenance test flights by 30 percent, mission aborts by 29 percent and unscheduled maintenance by 16 percent."
Upon receiving Congressional notification of the contract award, U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), a senior member of the U.S. Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee and co-chair of the Senate's National Guard Caucus, offered his congratulations to the employees of Goodrich. "Our nation's field commanders demand this system because this advanced technology makes military helicopters safer and less expensive to operate," he said.
Goodrich HUMS are in use on U.S. Army UH-60A/L/M and CH-47D helicopters, U.S. Navy and Marine Corps MH-60R/S, AH-1Z, UH-1Y, and CH-53E platforms, and the commercial Sikorsky S-92 and S-76D helicopters.
For more information visit www.goodrich.com.
