Jun. 29—As Sikorsky Aircraft waits on a Pentagon decision for an eventual Black Hawk helicopter replacement, its plants in Connecticut and Florida have plenty more work ahead building new Black Hawks under one last big contract — while extending the life of existing aircraft, including any flying into the cross-hairs of enemy combatants.
On Sunday, the U.S. Department of Defense awarded Sikorsky and parent Lockheed Martin a contract for between 120 and 255 Black Hawk helicopters over five years, at a value of between $2.3 billion and $4.4 billion. That would put the average price tag for each helicopter at between $17 million and $19 million, including the cost of any contractual extras like spare parts and support.
"Even though the U.S. Army production contract will be over in roughly '27, we're hoping to still sell some internationally — it probably won't be at the volume that we're producing today but it's something we are going to be after," said Paul Lemmo, president of Sikorsky, during a May update in Stratford on how Sikorsky is upgrading it's plant to build new generations of helicopters. "Obviously we are looking at Black Hawk modernization. ... You're not going to fly today's models, as they exist today, that long. You are going to have to make some modernization of the fleet."
Sikorsky has long relied on its headquarters plant in Stratford to assemble Black Hawks, after preparatory work on air frames at a smaller factory in Bridgeport. In early May, Sikorsky executives told Hearst Connecticut Media that work had begun in Bridgeport on the 5,000th Black Hawk that would be transported to Stratford for final assembly.
After a Hearst query on Tuesday, a Sikorsky spokesperson confirmed that some Black Hawks are slated to be assembled in Florida, without providing an immediate estimate of the split between Stratford and West Palm Beach.
Next to the existing Black Hawk production line in Stratford, Sikorsky has created a parallel production line to build the new CH-53K helicopter for the U.S. Marine Corps, with space for a second CH-53K line as manufacturing hits full gear in a few years.
"We've committed that we're going to stay in Connecticut and do our production here," Lemmo said in May.
The sunset is lowering on the horizon for the Black Hawk, with the Pentagon now shopping for a replacement. Sikorsky and Boeing are offering Defiant X, which is a departure from standard helicopters with stacked rotor sets that whirl in opposite directions.
Bell and parent Textron have proposed the V-280 Valor which is designed with tilt-rotor engines that allow the Valor to take off vertically before swiveling down to power the aircraft like a conventional airplane.
A Pentagon spokesperson told Hearst Connecticut Media that the review board "is being very thorough" in making the decision, which is now expected this fall at least three months behind original expectations. The decision has major implications for Sikorsky, which has more than 8,000 employees in Connecticut along with hundreds of contractors and other vendors.
With work on the new aircraft years away, the military is upgrading Black Hawk helicopters for modern warfare requirements. The Army unveiled the newest UH-60V variant of the Black Hawk only last fall, which includes digital screens in place of gauges, modernized GPS guidance systems, and advanced flight-planning systems.
Longer-term, Sikorsky hopes to sell the Pentagon on the idea of retrofitting Black Hawks for autonomous flight, taking over from pilots in difficult conditions and in the extreme allowing mission commanders to dispatch unmanned helicopters to deliver supplies to ground troops in combat zones.
Black Hawk modernization includes also the installation of powerful new engines from GE Aviation that will be used as well for an armed reconnaissance helicopter Sikorsky and Bell are bidding to build. The engines more than double the weight capacity and range of the Black Hawk, thanks to improved power and fuel consumption.
GE Aviation beat out a competing engine from Honeywell and Pratt & Whitney based in East Hartford to win the contract, with plans to build the engines at a plant in Lynn, Mass. GE told investment analysts in March it expects the new T901 engine to be installed on all Black Hawk helicopters in the Army fleet.
For the eventual Black Hawk replacement, Sikorsky is working with Honeywell on an engine which is still under development.
The Pentagon is on the record that it does not plan to retire today's newest Black Hawks for another half century. But older aircraft are being mothballed, including 56 Black Hawk helicopters for the coming fiscal year that begins in October .That includes 17 of Sikorsky's oldest UH-60A model which began entering service in 1978, and the remainder its UH-60L model which dates back to 1989.
Sikorsky has also been working to create digital "twins" of aircraft that allow technicians to get a complete history, data and 3-D visual of the aircraft and its specific parts, allowing for swifter diagnosis of any mechanical issues including through the use of augmented reality goggles.
"Every single aircraft is uniquely different," said John Steiner, sustainment program manager for Sikorsky's Future Vertical Lift program, speaking in May in Stratford. "It really drives that life-cycle cost down."
Includes prior reporting by Liz Hardaway who contributed to this report.
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