WASHINGTON — The Army has awarded Lockheed Martin’s helicopter subsidiary Sikorsky an additional $234 million in an undefined contract action (UCA) for an initial 16 Black Hawk UH-60 helicopters, the service and the company announced today.
The total contact value is now worth $356 million. The news comes as Sikorsky’s 10th multiyear deal, awarded in 2022 by the Army, is set to conclude by the end of 2027. The company plans to start delivering the 16 aircraft to the Army when the current multiyear deal ends, Rich Benton, Sikorsky’s vice president and general manager told reporters ahead of the Army’s announcement.
“The next agreement will not only continue the active production line we have today, but it’s also going to set the infrastructure and the foundation for the Black Hawk that’s going to come,” Benton said. “Our focus has always been to provide the most effective and capable Black Hawk to our customers when they need it to execute the missions they need, and the contract structure we have come to an agreement [with] the Army is absolutely going to deliver this ”
The award is undefinitized, meaning dollar values and quantities could change as negotiations continue. With these contract vehicles, the Pentagon does not have to wait for a final definitized deal, and the vendor can get started on production even if there are roadblocks in the congressional appropriations process.
Jason Wrigley, director of business development at Sikorsky, said the 16 initial aircraft are scheduled to be delivered to the Army in fiscal 2028. After the UCA is definitized, Benton said he predicts there could be as many as 150 aircraft as part of the deal over the next three to four years, with some of those going to the National Guard and foreign military sales as well. The initial 16 aircraft are being funded by leftover fiscal 2025 and 2026 appropriations, Wrigley said.
One of Sikorsky’s goals with the new agreement is to be “flexible,” Benton said, and be able to have a quick turnaround time in delivering the aircraft. Hence, he said, the company has already begun ordering hardware that has long lead times and the company is already in the subassembly process — when the manufacturing of a complete product is broken up into smaller processes — “to make sure there’s no break in production.”
“We met the Army where they needed to be, right. They needed us to be agile. They needed us to contract quickly, and they needed [us] to maintain continuous production, which to us was a priority,” Benton said.
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Today’s announcement comes after the president’s FY27 budget request included $39 million for a single UH-60M Black Hawk, as opposed to last year’s $913 million request. The House’s version of the National Defense Authorization Act, passed in July, adds $250 million to that request to procure six additional UH-60Ms. Its defense appropriations bill, if approved, would add $493 million to procure additional aircraft, with exact quantities unspecified. The Senate has yet to pass its version of the NDAA, but the Senate Armed Services Committee’s draft version adheres to the president’s request.
Despite a dramatic decrease in requested funds, Army senior leaders have since said that the service is not “getting rid” of its existing fleet of helos, including the Black Hawks.