FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
2001
2001 - 2804.PDF
BORN AGAIN BLACK HAWK The Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk has been a cornerstone of US Army aviation for a long time, but its enduring qualities have persuaded the army to begin a huge drive to update the aircraft PAUL LEWIS / WASHINGTON DC / FORT EUSTIS, VIRGINIA N ot only has the Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk been in production for close to a quarter of a cen tury, but nearly 25% of the US Army's fleet of 1,500 machines are at least 20 years old. Even more remark able is the fact that, as a component of the future US Army Objective Force, the UH-60 will remain the cornerstone of army avia tion to 2025 and beyond. To get there, the US Army has embarked on a massive mod ernisation drive that will give virtually every Black Hawk a new lease of life. To this end, in March the Pentagon's Defense Acquisition Board (DAB) approved a two-step programme, starting in 2004 with the recapitalisation and upgrade of 1,217 UH-60A/L helicopters to the improved UH-60M standard. The DAB also recognised the longer-term requirement for an increased payload/range helicopter, which Sikorsky hopes to fulfil with 225 heavily modified Black Hawks, more loosely designated the UH-60X. "Black Hawk will be the army's Objective Force utility helicopter and so is going to be around for some time to come," says Col William Lake, utility helicopter project manager, US Army Aviation and Missile Command. "The 'M' programme gets all older UH-60A models into the future. The smaller contingent of 'X' aircraft will be able to lift, in hot/high conditions, a 9,5001b [4,300kg] external load and that would give us the remaining capacity we need to lift the future Objective Force Ikvl * iti «!"»*" 28 14-20 AUGUST 2001 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL www.fliqhtinternational.com
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
