Lockheed Martin Sikorsky Take Army Contract for Black Hawk Modernization

Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin company, recently announced a new U.S. Army contract that will fund modernization engineering efforts for the Black Hawk helicopter.

The initial $43 million contract award will focus on foundational capabilities for modernization such as:

Updating and modernizing the airframe
Enhancing unmanned aerial systems (UAS integration with a digital backbone

“Sikorsky is ready to implement new technologies that will strengthen the combat-proven Black Hawk helicopter and give U.S. Army soldiers greater advantage in areas like the Indo-Pacific,” said Hamid Salim, vice president, Army and Air Force Systems at Sikorsky.

“Integrating launched effects into the Black Hawk will enhance its capabilities and provide a significant advantage. Modernization is reducing costs, increasing efficiency and improving the overall maintenance and sustainment for the aircraft,” Salim added.

The contract will support the Army's goal of integrating launched effects into the Black Hawk, enabling the aircraft to deploy UAS and enhance its mission capabilities.

The MBSE and digital engineering effort will focus on developing a digital thread of the Black Hawk for collaborative and effective design, testing and maintenance of the aircraft.

The Black Hawk digital backbone effort, supporting a Modular Open System Approach (MOSA), will develop advanced software and systems. This digital backbone facilitates rapid capability insertion to respond to future platform mission needs.

This initial work on airframe enhancements, main fuel and digital backbone set a strong foundation for future updates to Black Hawk.

With a more powerful engine, airframe enhancements and a main fuel upgrade, the aircraft will carry more payload at greater range. Potential future upgrades to flight controls to include autonomy and AI features that assist pilots in tough conditions, with the goal of enhancing safety and effectiveness.

"Together with our team of hundreds of American suppliers, we are committed to delivering the most advanced and capable modernized Black Hawk to the U.S. Army,” Salim said, “We look forward to continuing our work with the Army to ensure that the Black Hawk remains a vital component of our nation's defense capabilities for years to come.”

Sikorsky is already fielding technology today that will lead to improved capability of a modernized Black Hawk.

For example, Sikorsky is producing and delivering upturned exhaust systems II kits. These kits provide Black Hawk helicopters with improved performance improvements in the following areas: