India’s Air Force and Navy have committed to investing $7.8 billion to acquire 24 Seahawk MH60R helicopters from the Sikorsky business unit of Lockheed Martin Corporation. Half this project will support jobs at Owego, NY and most of the rest at Stratford, CT where Sikorsky is headquartered.
India will possess more Seahawks than any NATO ally and be on par with Australia as the largest foreign operator of this storied rotorcraft. The order is booked as a Foreign Military Sale or FMS, which means that India will formally buy from the U.S. government which will reimburse Lockheed.
Lockheed previously won $2 billion in business from India to supply 12 of the largest transport aircraft – the Super Hercules C130J.
21 of the copters will be operated by the Indian Air Force (which is also the largest foreign operator of the Boeing C17) and the balance by the Indian Navy (which was also the first international customer for the Boeing Poseidon aircraft).
Tom Kane, director of naval helicopter programs at Lockheed’s Sikorsky subsidiary, said that the U.S. Navy agreed to provide three units from its brand-new aircraft inventory to the Indian navy so the latter could “begin training on a more accelerated basis than might normally be possible.”
