Smiths awarded $10 million US Navy contract for H-60 helicopters - LATEST

SMITHS Aerospace, part of the global technology business Smiths Group, today announces it has been awarded a contract with a potential value of more than $10 million to support the H-60 helicopters.

Smiths Aerospace will provide performance-based logistics (PBL) in the support of the rotor actuation system on the H-60 aircraft.
The work is taking place at the Smiths Aerospace facility in New Jersey and is expected to be complete in 2008.

Dr John Ferrie, President of Smiths Aerospace, said: Our objective is to enhance equipment, and therefore aircraft, availability and reduce the customers cost of ownership. An integrated support approach enables us to manage the supply chain efficiently for our customers.

The contract supports the US Navy through Maritime Helicopter Support Company, a joint venture between Sikorsky and Lockheed Martin, which holds a prime contract with the Navy for broader H-60 support.

The H-60 Black Hawk is the Armys front-line utility helicopter used for air assault, air cavalry, and aeromedical evacuation units. Black Hawk provides the platform for a wide range of derivatives. The contract includes support for the rotor actuation systems installed on the MH-60S Knight Hawk, SH-60F Sea Hawk, UH-60M Black Hawk, MH-60R Sea Hawk, SH-60B Sea Hawk, and HH-60H Sea Hawk aircraft.

Smiths Aerospace was one of the first aerospace companies to introduce PBL programs in 1997 with a program to support the RAF Hercules SCNS (Self-Contained Navigation System). This was quickly followed by a second RAF support PBL, this time to guarantee the availability of LRU displays for the Tornado GR4.

Smiths also has one of the first US Navy PBLs, a 15-year firm fixed price contract signed in 1998 for the Stores Management System (SMS) on the US Navy and US Marine Corps F/A-18 and AV-8B aircraft. Under the programme Smiths Aerospace manages the inventory for some 350 different spares, along with forecasting requirements, managing unit repairs and transportation and is responsible for managing component obsolescence. This was followed early this year by award of the F/A-18 Stores Management System Upgrade (SMUG) PBL in support of F/A-18s.

ENDS

About the H-60
The MH-60R/S is designed to support the Navy's Helicopter Master Plan and meet Fleet Combat Support Aircraft mission requirements. The MH-60S is an amalgam of the Sikorsky UH-60L BLACK HAWK helicopter and its Navy variant, the SH-60B SEAHAWK® helicopter. MH-60S helicopter missions include Vertical Replenishment, Combat Search and Rescue, Special Warfare Support and Airborne Mine Countermeasures, where it will be outfitted with a variety of systems to further serve the fleet.