With the termination of its CSAR-X helicopter replacement program, the Air Force is seeking $90 million to buy two UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters to replace two HH-60G Pave Hawk combat search and rescue helicopters it has lost. These UH-60Ms are the latest configuration that the Army is procuring from Sikorsky in a long-line of Black Hawks. The Air Force funding request would cover the costs of modifying them for the personnel recovery mission, service spokeswoman Lt. Col. Karen Platt tells the Daily Report. She says the Air Force is completing an assessment of the current UH-60M model to determine the level of modification that would be required. The service has not determined the nomenclature it would use for these helicopters, she said. When asked whether this approach might also be an option to speed replacement of the Air Force’s UH-1N helicopters, Platt said that the Air Force is “assessing all available options” which would meet the requirements and schedule that the service has defined for this successor aircraft, which is provisionally known as the Common Vertical Lift Support Platform (see below).
The Air Force and Boeing agreed to a nearly $2.4 billion contract for a new lot of KC-46 aerial tankers on Nov. 21. The deal, announced by the Pentagon, is for 15 new aircraft in Lot 11 at a cost of $2.389 billion—some $159 million per tail.