Unveiling the 40-Year-Old Black Hawk!

Enhancing Hawk Construction: Exploring Sikorsky’s Third-Generation UH-60M Black Hawk Assembly in Stratford, Connecticut

Sikorsky produces two versions of the Black Hawk for the U.S. Army today: the UH-60M for troop transport and HH-60M for medical evacuation. Cherie A.

From the outside, the basic UH-60M Mike air vehicle looks like the Black Hawk that we started producing in 1978, but on the inside essentially everything has changed, including the main rotor blades and aircraft structure,” said Hanke, who was once UH-60M program manager. The method of production has evolved, too.

“We have a monolithic airframe that is produced from one piece of metal using high-speed machined parts, which takes less time to build, has a lot fewer parts, and has a corrosion treatment,” said Hanke. “We simplified the construction and reduced the weight as a consequence.”

The use of monolithic components eliminated about 2,200 parts from the original cabin and introduced tighter tolerances, while the introduction of a composite folding stabilator reduced the parts count by more than 60 percent and eliminated 1,400 fasteners.

The launch of UH-60M production coincided with the introduction of a new computer-based manufacturing system.

“The computerized system allowed us to capture a lot more statistics regarding the work we’re doing and how it was being done,” said Hanke, adding that the digital factory also made it easier for Sikorsky to update manufacturing processes based on the analysis of data from the field.

Today, there are eight people at each of the six positions on two final assembly lines, working one of three eight-hour shifts each day. This results in a production time of about 42 days per Black Hawk.

When Sikorsky embarked on UH-60M production, “we focused on ergonomics, efficiency, and cleanliness as we ‘leaned out’ the factory,” said Mitchell, who oversees the manufacturing organization. “We created a brighter, cleaner, and safer factory, while reducing labor hours and costs and achieving a better flow on the floor.”

As of the summer of 2018, one of the Mike assembly lines was producing the medevac version (HH-60M), with the other producing the utility version.

The HH-60M features a medical interior with a litter system for up to six casualties, an oxygen generator, and modified accessories and avionics.

The standard army version is offered as part of a Foreign Military Sale. Some exports require customization, which is usually done by Sikorsky in Connecticut or at its West Palm Beach facility in Jupiter, Florida. Bahrain was the first UH-60M export customer.

The army has been flying specialized medevac Black Hawks for more than 30 years. The HH-60M features an advanced medical suite, including integrated suction and oxygen systems; defibrillation, ventilation, and incubation equipment; and equipment for monitoring vital signs.

Sikorsky has a long tradition of making all critical flight systems, including rotor blades, gears, gearbox housings, and flight controls for the Black Hawk and all of its other helicopters.

The main UH-60M cabin is integrated at Sikorsky’s historic Bridgeport plant, then trucked to Stratford for final assembly. Airframe production today is much less vertically integrated than in the past, with 40 percent of the main cabin now produced by Sikorsky subsidiary PZL Mielec in Poland, and Turkish suppliers providing some of the tail pylons and tail cones as part of a dual sourcing agreement.

Production of the legacy MH-60R Romeo is also a multi-site enterprise, with the airframe assembled at the Sikorsky factory at the Troy Municipal Airport in Alabama, final assembly in Stratford, and mission systems installation and integration centered at Lockheed Martin in Owego, where the MH-60R cockpit is also produced.

The last of 277 MH-60S Sierras was delivered in 2016, and the last of 324 MH-60R Romeos ordered by the Navy is scheduled to roll off the assembly line in 2020, but the maritime helicopter is still available for export sales, which are expected to extend production well into the mid-2020s.

Following close on the heels of the MH-60R, the Stratford factory is now tooling up to assemble the new generation HH-60W “Whiskey” CSAR helicopter for the Air Force and the new heavy-lift CH-53K King Stallion for the Marine Corps.

New Generation HH-60W Whiskey

In the early 1980s, the Air Force began developing the HH-60D Night Hawk — a sophisticated CSAR and special operations aircraft based on the UH-60A. The program didn’t result in a production aircraft, so instead, 10 Air Force UH-60As were upgraded to “Credible Hawk” CSAR configuration. This included an inflight refueling probe, a 117-US gallon (440-liter) auxiliary fuel tank in the rear cabin, a fuel management system, hoist, and two crew-served (or pilot-controlled) 7.62 mm miniguns or .50-caliber machine guns for self-protection.

Beginning in the late 1980s, the Air Force upgraded and added to this fleet, ultimately requiring 112 HH-60G Pave Hawk CSAR helicopters, based on the UH-60L.

The HH-60G was an evolutionary program that left the Air Force with a fleet of aircraft built over a 20-year period that were upgraded in piecemeal fashion. Since the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the HH-60Gs have also been one of the most deployed aircraft in the Air Force’s inventory, which has compounded the need for a replacement.

The Air Force attempted to replace the fleet with the CSAR-X program, but it was canceled in 2009, forcing it to restart the effort.

In June 2014, the Air Force awarded Sikorsky and Lockheed Martin a $1.3 billion engineering, manufacturing, and development (EMD) contract to develop a new CSAR helicopter based on the UH-60M.

The Air Force’s aging fleet of HH-60Gs will be replaced by the new-generation HH-60W.

As an interim measure, the USAF took delivery of the first of 21 UH-60Ls converted to HH-60Gs in 2016. These aircraft are to replace helicopters lost on deployed combat operations since 9/11 and return the fleet to its original strength of 112 HH-60G helicopters.

Tim Healy, Sikorsky’s Combat Rescue Helicopter program director, said Sikorsky and Lockheed Martin are drawing on their combined knowledge to design a robust helicopter — known as the HH-60W “Whiskey” — that can fulfill the Air Force’s demanding CSAR mission profiles.

“Some of the biggest challenges of retrieving a downed airman is that they are often a long distance away in a hostile area that has just proven its capability to shoot down a fighter jet,” he said.

“It’s a time-sensitive mission where the crew must gather as much information as possible while flying en route to the target, and the mission systems must be able to provide situational awareness of the area around the downed aircrew,

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