Greece kicks off talks to buy Black Hawk helicopters from Sikorsky

The government of Greece has submitted a formal request to acquire 49 UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters manufactured by Stratford-based Sikorsky Aircraft.

According to a Flight Global report, Greece’s army currently operates 64 Bell UH-1 helicopters for its utility life missions; the UH-60s will replace the current aircraft fleet. Greece’s procurement process for the UH-60s began in April as a Foreign Military Sales request, but it was not publicly announced until now.

“An official request was received from Greece for the supply of up to 49 Black Hawk helicopters,” said Sikorsky President Paul Lemmo. “That is in the process now by the Defense Cooperation office here in the U.S.”

Lemmo added there was approximately a three-year wait between finalizing the order contracts and the first delivery of the aircraft.

“It depends on the specialization they want in the aircraft,” he said. “Depending on the aircraft, sometimes we can accelerate that a little bit more.”

Greece is the latest overseas government seeking the UH-60s – earlier this year, the militaries in Australia, Poland and Indonesia requested the helicopters.

Photo courtesy of Sikorsky.