U.S. Army orders 16 more UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters

The U.S. Army has awarded Sikorsky a $234.5 million contract modification to build 16 new UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters, bringing the total value of the underlying contract to $356.3 million.

The fixed-price-incentive modification adds to contract W58RGZ-26-C-0008, which the Army and Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin company, first signed earlier this year. Work will take place at Sikorsky’s plant in Stratford, Connecticut, with an estimated completion date of June 30, 2028. The Army obligated the full $234.5 million from fiscal 2026 aircraft procurement funds at the time of the award. Army Contracting Command at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is managing the deal, and the modification remains undefinitized, meaning Sikorsky can begin work while the Army and the company continue negotiating the final contract price.

This contract began in April 2026 as a $65 million advance procurement deal covering materials and long-lead items for 10 UH-60Ms, meant to reduce schedule risk before full-rate production started. The new modification builds on that award, funding actual production of 16 aircraft rather than the 10 originally covered under the advance procurement phase.

The UH-60M is Sikorsky’s current-generation Black Hawk, featuring a digital cockpit, wide-chord rotor blades and more powerful engines than earlier A and L model Black Hawks. Sikorsky has manufactured Black Hawks for the Army since 1978, and the company has built the UH-60M and its HH-60M medevac variant under a series of multi-year contracts, including a $8.5 billion, five-year agreement signed in 2012 that also covered Navy Seahawk helicopters and included aircraft sold to allied militaries through the Foreign Military Sales program.

The U.S. State Department approved a separate $140 million foreign military sale on Sept. 11, 2026, covering four Sikorsky UH-60L Black Hawks and ancillary equipment for Argentina, including engines, communication and navigation systems, and rescue hoists. Argentina’s army has said it wants the helicopters to replace its aging Bell UH-1H and Huey II fleet, and the State Department said the sale would support Argentina’s ability to manage border security and respond to disasters. Argentine officials have discussed the possibility of expanding an initial order of four aircraft to as many as ten, though as of this contract’s award no final agreement or delivery date had been confirmed.

The Army has separately been studying whether to extend the UH-60M fleet’s service life past 2050 through a midlife modernization effort, since the aircraft has been in operational service since the early 2000s.