According to a the U.S. Federal contracting website, the U.S. Government will contract Lockheed Martin Rotary and Mission Systems (the parent company of Sikorsky) located in Owego, Nw York to develop, integrate and install an Indian Navy MH-60R System. This will include modification of an existing Royal Saudi Navy MH-60R SC18-03 baseline and will create an Initial Indian Navy baseline. Under the yet-to-be-awarded contract, Lockheed Martin is to load and verify the new India-specific baseline on Lot 14 U.S. Navy Government Furnished Equipment (GFE) aircraft and deliver these aircraft back to the U.S. Government.
The Royal Saudi Navy MH-60Rs that were delivered from September 2018 are of a similar anti-surface vessel warfare (ASuW) and anti-submarine warfare (ASW) standard to the latest helicopters flying with the US Navy (USN), including AN/AAS-44C(V) multi-spectral targeting systems, AN/AVS-9 night-vision goggles, AN/SSQ-36/53/62 sonobuoys, Raytheon MK 54 torpedoes, and crew-served weapons. The Royal Saudi Navy standard that will form the baseline configuration for the Indian Navy (adds the Lockheed Martin AGM-114R Hellfire II air-to-surface missile and BAE Systems Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS) which, while integrated by the USN, are not typically carried.
India signed a contract with the U.S to procure 24 Sikorsky MH-60R Seahawk ‘Romeo’ maritime multi-mission helicopters for the Indian Navy earlier this year. The sale of the helicopters, through the U.S. Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program, was approved by the U.S. State Department in April last year. The approval was based on the Letter of Request (LOR) issued by the Government of India to the U.S. Government in late 2018 following the procurement approval by India’s Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) in September that year. The first six helicopters are expected to be delivered to the Indian Navy early next year. The helicopters will replace the Navy’s aging fleet of Sikorsky UH-3H Sea King and Westland Sea King Mk.42B helicopters.
