Decommissioning 157 helicopters will reduce the UH-60 fleet size to 1978 helicopters from 2135 helicopters. With some of the helicopters out of commission, the mean age of the fleet and total operating costs will go down, in addition to the way paved for new platforms. Decommissioned helicopters will be sold for 2 million $ per unit to the partner countries.
UH-60 Blackhawk has been in the Army’s service for decades in many different configurations, including transport, search and rescue, MEDEVAC, and attack. The helicopter is planned to be kept in use for the next two decades.
The U.S. Army chose Bell’s V280 Valor tiltrotor aircraft over Sikorsky’s S.B.-1 Defiant coaxial rotor compound helicopter, signalling a radical change in approach to the vertical flight within the service.
V280 Valor, similarly sized to most medium-weight helicopters like UH-60, mainly draws from Bell’s V-22 Osprey’s technology but also has some improvements. These include higher flexibility during vertical flight and unmanned use capability.
