The U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress Thursday of plans to sell three Sikorsky UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters, plus associated equipment, to the government of Austria in a deal valued at $137 million.
United Technologies (RTX 0.09%) subsidiary Sikorsky would be the principal contractor on this sale, with General Electric (GE 1.53%) providing the helicopters' engines.
The equipment under consideration for sale includes three UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters in standard U.S. government configuration, aside from certain "unique equipment" requested by the Austrians. The sale would include:
- Aviation Survivability Equipment (ASE), such as threat warning systems and chaff dispensers
- Aviation Mission Planning Systems
- an Aviation Ground Power Unit
- a single Transportable Black Hawk Operations Simulator
- eight pairs of AN/AVS-9 Night Vision Goggles
- eight Embedded Global Positioning Systems with Inertial Navigation
- seven T700-GE-701D engines, six integrated into the aircraft plus one spare engine
- plus other necessary equipment, tools, documentation, and training services.
According to DSCA, Austria is requesting the sale of these helicopters for use in domestic search and rescue missions, border surveillance operations, and also international operations.
DSCA assured Congress that "there will be no adverse impact on U.S. defense readiness as a result of this proposed sale."
