Contract Valued At $300 Million Over Program Life
Goodrich Corporation has received a contract from the US Army
to provide up to 1,000 Vehicle Health Management Systems (VHMS) for
UH-60A/L Black Hawk helicopters. The five-year Indefinite Delivery,
Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract is potentially valued at up to
$300 million and covers deliveries through 2013.
The VHMS monitors the entire helicopter mechanical drive train
from the engines to the rotor system, flight manual exceedances,
and hundreds of aircraft system signals. The system also includes a
cockpit voice flight data recorder and crash survivable memory
unit. Advanced information provided by VHMS alerts operators to
take preventative maintenance steps that avoid collateral damage
and more costly future repairs. Goodrich VHMS systems have been
battlefield proven on the UH-60 and CH-47D during Army deployments
to Iraq and Afghanistan.
"Strong endorsement from soldiers in the field led to equipping
the legacy Black Hawk fleet with the VHMS system," said Kip
Freeman, Business Director, Goodrich Sensors and Integrated
Systems. "After initial flight testing showed promising capability
to improve the safety and effectiveness of our troops, Senator
Leahy led the effort in Congress to fund a program to install our
system on helicopters being deployed to war zones. Goodrich is
extremely proud to participate in a program that helps the men and
women of our Armed Forces around the world."
Goodrich HUMS are in use on US Army UH-60A/L/M and CH-47D
helicopters, US Navy and Marine Corps MH-60R/S, AH-1Z, UH-1Y, and
CH-53E platforms, and the commercial Sikorsky S-92 and S-76D
helicopters.
In commenting on the many benefits of the equipment, COL L.
Neil Thurgood, Utility Helicopters Project Manager, US Army, said,
"The Goodrich VHMS system has proven to be a great benefit by
increasing readiness and safety while reducing the maintenance
burden on soldiers. We have more than 100,000 combat flight hours
on the system and have received an immediate benefit of reducing
NMCM or Non-Mission Capability Maintenance rates by 10 percent.
This equates to having an additional five aircraft available for
missions in each Combat Aviation Brigade. Recent Army studies show
the system also reduces costs and soldier burden by reducing
maintenance test flights by 30 percent, mission aborts by 29
percent and unscheduled maintenance by 16 percent."
The VHMS will be produced by Goodrich's Sensors and Integrated
Systems operations in Vergennes, VT.