Rotorcraft manufacturer Sikorsky is ramping up deliveries to the Australian Defence Force, as Canberra expands its inventory of military helicopters.
Over the coming year, the Lockheed Martin subsidiary plans to hand over newly-built examples of both the maritime MH-60R Seahawk to the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) and the land-based UH-60M Black Hawk to the army.
Under a A$313 ($196) million deal announced in February, Sikorsky will deliver 13 additional Seahawks to the RAN by the end of 2026, bringing the service’s MH-60R fleet to a total of 36 examples.
Cliff Kyle, general manager of Sikorsky Australia, says the expanded inventory will give the navy greater flexibility with “more platforms to put on more decks”, but will also help Sikorsky improve the maintenance support it can provide locally.
“An increased fleet size lends itself to bring more capability onshore, which then leads to increased readiness for the fleet,” Kyle says. “We can reduce things like shipping time back to the US.”
The RAN’s current compliment of 23 MH-60Rs are based at HMAS Albatross on the New South Wales coast. Sikorsky plans to expand its existing workforce in that area to support the maintenance of the larger Seahawk fleet.
On land, the rotorcraft manufacturer will continue delivering the Australian army’s new UH-60Ms, an example of which is on display at the Avalon air show near Melbourne.
Sikorsky delivered Australia’s 13th Black Hawk just before the start of the air show, with at least six more UH-60Ms set to be turned over this year. The army’s full order of 40 rotorcraft will be completed by 2030.
Upon achieving that milestone, there will be a total footprint of 76 H-60-family helicopters in the region, which Kyle notes will give Sikorsky a “much greater” ability to regionally support the Australian fleet.
The Black Hawk and Seahawk share a high degree of commonality, creating some efficiencies in sustaining the two distinct rotorcraft. However, the MH-60R requires a separate support base, owing to the specialised needs of operating in the corrosive maritime environment.
“The commonality between the aircraft allows us to really build and scale a repair capability that’s homegrown to Australia and supports that fleet of 76 Hawks in the long-term,” Kyle says.
While Sikorsky is testing the new GE Aerospace T901 engine planned for use with the US Army’s fleet of Black Hawks, Kyle says the Australian fleet for now expects to stick with the current GE Aerospace T700 turboshaft.
