The American Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation is promoting its first company-qualified armed variant of its latest model Black Hawk utility helicopter with optimisms of securing a regional military as the model’s first client.
The aircraft company had its first mock-up air show of the Black Hawk at Farnborough, north east Hampshire, England Air in 2016. January this year, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) rolled it out and now that model has officially been qualified by Sikorsky.
Sikorsky has a potential client in the region and that is why it is promoting this fully-integrated armed S-70i for its versatility according to a senior official. Adam Schierholz, Sikorsky Latin America regional executive and product marketing director, while addressing the media on December 2, at Expodefensa that this potential client has two different defined requests in the coming days; one armed aircraft and another for utility aircraft.
According to Schierholz, this what the company was looking for; beauty of combining those two needs into one aircraft allowing the client to save a lot of money.
Sirkorsky is marketing this armed S-70i aircraft as an affordable option for militaries with smaller budgets such as those in the Latin America region. Schierholz took pride that aircraft can be easily switched from utility to armed in three hours by adding the wings and weapons without requiring dedicated crew, training, and spares. This is the first time that aircraft corporation has qualified its own armed Black Hawk.
