On September 24, 2019, Lockheed Martin announced that the helicopter based on the Black Hawk and slated to replace the Pave Hawk is ready to enter production.
According to the company, the Sikorsky HH-60W Combat Rescue Helicopter (CRH) will move into low rate initial production.
The U.S. Air Force ordered 113 helicopters to replace its predecessor, the HH-60G Pave Hawk. The new aircraft will be used by all U.S. military services to perform search and rescue and personnel recovery operations.
Right now, five CRH aircraft are in various stages of production at the Sikorsky facility in Stratford, Connecticut.
The decision to move into production comes after four instrumented test aircraft gave a demonstration at the Sikorsky Development Flight Center in West Palm Beach, Florida.
The CRH hit a milestone this month when four hovered together simultaneously. Including the first test flight on May 17, 2019, and an 8,000-pound lift test in August, the joint test team from Sikorsky and the Air Force has executed more than 150 hours of test flights.
According to Lockheed, the new craft is more capable and reliable than the Pave Hawk. The CRH has an extended range with a new fuel system that has a higher capacity. It also has improved hover performance, electrical capacity, avionics, cooling, weapons, and cybersecurity, among other things.
The Black Hawk is getting a few upgrades as well. In June, Sikorskytested a soon-to-be optionally piloted aircraft. It’s the latest step in the Black Hawk becoming fully autonomous.
