Pilots with the Idaho Army National Guard’s 183rd Aviation Regiment, practiced their flight maneuvers in the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter around Idaho’s Orchard Combat Training Center and Saylor Creek Training Range in April 2022. (US National Guard/ Master Sgt. Becky Vanshur)
AAAA 2023 — With the selection of the V-280 Valor late last year for its multi-billion-dollar Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft program, US Army leaders now have a clear vision of what will replace the aging Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawks. And yet, service leaders are quick to note the Black Hawk won’t be disappearing for quite some time.
“For the next 40 to 60 years, I see us continuing to incrementally improve [the Black Hawk fleet],” Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville told lawmakers during a House Armed Services Committee on April 19. “I see many of our allies and partners taking a hard look at the type of aircraft they have. So it’s gonna be around for a long time.”
The challenge facing Army leadership is how to balance bringing along the new aircraft — able to maneuver at faster speeds on contested battlefields, but not ready for fielding until 2030 — with the service’s long-standing rotorcraft workhorse.
Ultimately, the solution may come down to how the Army goes after three key questions: what mix of V-280s and UH-60s will the service need in the foreseeable future, what demand will international customers have for each helicopter, and what Black Hawk upgrades will the Army need to pursue to keep the aircraft relevant.
Force Design
The current Army Acquisition Objective, or AAO, for its UH-60 Black Hawk fleet currently sits at 2,135 aircraft, a number expected to be reduced over time as the service decides just how many of those aircraft it will replace with FLRAA. Senior Army leaders, including McConville, have reiterated that the service is not eyeing a one-for-one replacement, but have hedged publicly on what a final mix might look like.
Doug Bush, the service’s head of acquisition, told members of the House Armed Services subcommittee on April 19 that he and other officials need more time to work through questions about the mix; he noted there should be more clarity as the service moves through fiscal 2025 budget planning, documents that should be released next spring. Part of that planning will become clearer when the Army conducts its FLRAA milestone B decision next year when the service’s “initial solid estimate” for the new aircraft’s AAO becomes more definitive.
Although the Army expects to begin fielding FLRAA around the 2030 timeframe, JJ Gertler, a senior analyst with the Teal Group, surmised that FLRAA production ramp up plans will be one part of the AAO calculation for both aircraft fleets.
“If we’re getting FLRAA at 30 or 40 per year, that doesn’t make a significant dent” right away, he told Breaking Defense during an April 21 interview.
Depending on this FLRAA ramp up plan, and associated training, the service will also need to decide which components get the newer aircraft first.
“Another question in that regard involves the National Guard,” he added. “It’s a pretty big deal to convert [those Black Hawk units] to something like FLRAA. Does the Army intend to focus FLRAA on the active component first? Or are they going to try and bring the guard and reserve components along with it?”
Lawmakers are typically critical of efforts to relegate legacy equipment to the Guard or Reserve components, but since the Army National Guard operates more than 40% of the service’s Black Hawk fleet, Gertler said this could be one viable option for maintaining the fleet and appeasing lawmakers from Connecticut where there is a Black Hawk production facility.
“A big lingering question is whether they intend to buy new Black Hawks or will just plan to have a mix while the Black Hawks work themselves out of the inventory,” he added.
Foreign Power
Striking the right mix between FLRAA and Black Hawk aircraft inside the Army is only part of the equation for maintaining the latter’s production line: more than 30 foreign countries currently operate the system, with new buys still occurring. Last year, for example, the US State Department approved the Foreign Military Sale of 40 UH-60M Black Hawks to Australia under a $1.95 billion deal.
Given the strong partner and ally buy-in to the Black Hawk line, Bush said the service is also “hoping” that “continued strong foreign military sales” of the fleet is yet another avenue for maintaining the production line over the coming decades and offsetting any dip to US Army needs.
But will those potential customers want FLRAA once it’s available? Since dozens of countries are already operating Black Hawk aircraft, Gertler said the unknown per-unit cost of FLRAA will be central to that decision making process, as will be the cost and logistics burden of operating a mixed fleet with both rotorcraft.
Maintaining Relevance
Regardless of the projected Black Hawk numbers inside the US Army for the coming decades and anticipated FMS sales of the aircraft, the service needs to craft a plan to keep the fleet airworthy and relevant against emerging threats.
Last year, the service and Sikorsky inked a five-year multi-year deal for 120 H-60 Black Hawk helicopters, valued around $2.3 billion, with an option for an additional 135 aircraft.
Paul Lemmo, Sikorsky’s CEO and president, told reporters on Tuesday that the company plans to deliver the last of those aircraft in 2026 and has also responded to recent Army “sources sought” notice for another potential Black Hawk multi-year deal to keep the line open beyond that.
Beyond aircraft production, existing rotorcraft will need to be upgraded for decades to come, with some plans already underway to include the addition of General Electric’s Improved Turbine Engine Program, or ITEP. Under that program the GE T901 engine is planned to replace the T700 engine in UH-60 Black Hawks and AH-64 Apaches, and will be integrated into two Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft prototypes (one built by Sikorsky and the other by Bell).
However, Bush disclosed earlier this year that GE is continuing to experience ITEP delays, which has slowed down all integration plans, including with the Black Hawk line. Those engine-related delays, he told House lawmakers, currently center around “quality control” issues associated with sub vendor components.
“They’ve had trouble making some new components including some new methods, like 3D printing, to the level of quality required for engines that we can actually put in test aircraft,” Bush said.
For the Black Hawk line, Lemmo said Sikorsky is standing by and ready to begin the integration process once the new engines are ready.
“We’ve done all the studies. We’ve done the work. We know exactly how to integrate that engine into the Black Hawk and the performance it’ll give,” he said. “We’re anxious to go flying with that, but we recognize that that’ll be a secondary priority behind getting engines for FARA.”
The company is also investing in a potential modular open system architecture, or MOSA, for the aircraft line and is looking to build on the unmanned Black Hawk demonstration at Project Convergence 2021 and 2022. For those demos, the Army used the Black Hawk Aircrew Labor In-Cockpit Automation System (ALIAS), which began under DARPA with software developed by Sikorsky to fly the helicopter with no pilot onboard. And Lemmo was careful to point out there may be future fleet upgrades to come.
“We’re certainly having discussions on all of the above set of solutions that can be retrofitted but also solutions that would clearly go forward in production depending on… how much longer they have production of the Black Hawk,” he added.
