Sweden signs purchase contract for 12 Sikorsky UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters

The Defense Materiel Administration (FMV) has signed a contract for the acquisition of 12 UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters for the Swedish Armed Forces.

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The twelve Helikopter 16 (the Swedish name for the U.S. Sikorsky UH-60M helicopter) will be supplied in the next few years, in addition to the other 15 units of the same type already delivered.

Among the Swedish Black Hawk’s first assignments, it functioned as a medical transport during operations in Afghanistan, and has since been part of other international operations.

«The acquisition of more helicopters is in line with ÖB’s military advice to the government and the Defense Committee’s report on strengthening defense capabilities for Sweden as an ally,» said Michael Stolpen, FMV unit head.

The contract is obtained from the U.S. Army under Foreign Military Sales (FMS), a program to make sales of military equipment to other allied countries, under the same procurement conditions obtained by the U.S. Armed Forces.

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Under the agreement approved by the U.S. Department of Defense in June, in addition to the helicopters, Sweden requested the purchase of:

• 30 T700-GE-701D engines (24 installed, 6 spare)
• 17 AN/AAR-57 common missile warning systems (CMWS)
• AN/APR-39C(V)1/4 radar warning receivers
• Laser detectors AN/AVR-2B
• AN/ARN-149(V) Low Frequency Automatic Direction Finder Receivers
• AN/ARN-153 Tactical Air Navigation Systems (TACAN) Transmitter-Receivers
• Radar Altimeters AN/APN-209
• Emergency Locator Transmitters (ELT) EBC-406HM
• Enhanced Ballistic Armor Protection Systems (EBAPS)
• Internal Auxiliary Fuel Tank Systems (IAFTS)
• Fast Rope Insertion Retrieval Systems (FRIES)
• External Rescue Hoists (ERH)

The total estimated cost of the helicopters and their associated equipment and logistics support is $900 million.

The new UH-60Ms are being brought in to replace Sweden’s fleet of nine NH90 land variant helicopters (local designation HKP-14E), which will be decommissioned early after years of dealing with delivery delays, logistical difficulties and poor performance.