Sikorsky executive: Black Hawk replacement could be worth $80B

Sikorsky and parent company Lockheed Martin contracts could reach $80 billion or more, if the manufacturer wins a Department of Defense competition to replace the Black Hawk helicopter with a new aircraft that could be adapted to a range of missions.

Sikorsky and Lockheed Martin are working with Boeing to bid against the Bell subsidiary, Textron, to become the lead contractor on the Pentagon's “Future Vertical Lift” initiative to identify the next utility aircraft for the U.S. Army, and in for other military branches and the U.S. Coast Guard. Much of that production is expected to occur at Sikorsky's headquarters plant in Stratford and an assembly line in Bridgeport for aircraft frames.

Sikorsky and Bell are awaiting an award by this summer on their proposed replacements for the Black Hawk helicopter, and within a few years on an armed scout helicopter for the Army.

“What we're looking at ... is probably north of $8 billion for the initial [orders],” Andrew Adams, a Sikorsky vice president leading its

Future Vertical Lift effort, said Thursday to members of the Connecticut General Assembly's Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee.

“We're estimating, when we look at our business case, of much greater than $80 billion total for the life of this program — and then when you start looking at international opportunities that this will open up, we're thinking much more than that as well.”

Last month, Gov. Ned Lamont's administration awarded incentives with the goal of helping Lockheed Martin increase the competitiveness of Sikorsky's bid for the Future Vertical Lift bids.

Lamont met Thursday with representatives of some of the more than 240 in-state suppliers for the iconic helicopter manufacturer at the Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology in East Hartford.

“This is a big deal for the state of Connecticut,” Lamont said during the Thursday news conference. “We've got hundreds of companies in the Sikorsky supply chain. We want to continue to expand that right here. That means they're ahead of the competition. The competition isn't just in Texas and

Virginia, but it's also in China and Russia. That's how we keep America safe. That's how we keep Connecticut growing and prospering.”

Under the agreement, Sikorsky and Lockheed Martin would get $50 million in incentives if it wins one of the two big contracts, and $75 million if awarded both projects.

In exchange, Sikorsky would commit to keeping Stratford as its headquarters plant with targeted Connecticut workforce levels set at a minimum of 7,250 jobs for one contract or 7,750 jobs for both. The expectation is that the company would eclipse those numbers, given it employs 8,100 people today in Connecticut working on Black Hawk and Seahawk production and helicopter lines for the Marine Corps, Air Force and White House.

Lamont said with the heated competition for future generations of combat aircraft, anything that can give Sikorsky an edge is important. But it remains unknown whether $75 million would have any impact on DOD's decision for its next big helicopter or tiltrotor platform, given the mammoth spend Lockheed Martin expects from the Pentagon over the coming decades on new aircraft.