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Lockheed Martin’s Sikorsky is on track to deliver nine new HH-60W Combat Rescue Helicopters to the Air Force for the price the company promised and six months early — a “man bites dog” story, the very definition of news. Delivering early and for the promised price is far from the norm in defense acquisition, where schedule delays and cost overruns hardly seem like news anymore, but are routine media fodder.

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I predict the AF will finally replace the Hueys in the year 2525.

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Originally posted by 95flhr:
It's a good story, but for a product they have been producing since 1979, I would sure as hell hope they can produce it on time and on budget by now.

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In some respects, Sikorsky providing nine Whiskey model Black Hawks to the Air Force in 69 months instead 75 during the $1.5 billion Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) phase of the CRH program shouldn’t be that surprising. The company has been building Black Hawks since the late 1970s, after all. The Defense Department has about 3,000 of various models in service, and the HH-60W is a derivative of the late model UH-60M the Army is buying.

At the same time, this isn’t just a new paint job. To make the HH-60W, Sikorsky is reconfiguring the UH-60M to get rid of two 185-gallon auxiliary tanks the Mike model carries inside the cabin and to expand the existing 360-gallon internal fuel tank in the airframe to 660 gallons. That will add cabin space for all the people and equipment the Whiskey will have to carry to do the CRH mission: two pilots, two gunners, guns, ammo, a three-member “PJ” pararescue team with their medical gear and supplies, and room for two “ambulatory patients.”