S-70 Black Hawk`s Adventure in Türkiye
Six S-70A-17 Black Hawks, which were ordered by the Gendarmerie General Command in 1988 and began to join the fleet at the end of the same year, served as the Turkish Armed Forces' first Black Hawks. In 1989, six S70A-17 Black Hawks were supplied for Police Aviation as an urgent need.
In the same year, on August 16, 1989, the Defense Industry Agency (then known as the Undersecretariat for
Defense Industries - SSM) sent out a call for proposals to Aerospatiale Helicopter Division, Agusta, Bell Helicopter Textron, M.B.B., Sikorsky Aircraft, and Westland Helicopters to produce at least 200 utility helicopters in Türkiye. The companies bidding for the Utility Helicopter production project delivered the helicopters they had offered for the tender to the tests held in Eastern Anatolia between July 15 and August 15, 1990, and these helicopters were put through a variety of tests. The Defense Industry Agency announced in September 1992 that it had chosen the Black Hawk helicopter produced by Sikorsky Aircraft because of these tests and the evaluation of the proposals submitted.
On December 8, 1992, a contract worth US$ 1.1 billion was signed with Sikorsky for 95 S-70A-28 Black Hawk helicopters, 45 for off-the-shelf purchase and 50 for joint production, with an option for an additional package of 55 units. Due to the urgency of the Utility Helicopter supply, the first five Black Hawk helicopters were delivered by airlift in December 1994. The off-the-shelf purchase package was completed in May 1994 with the delivery of the final five S-70A-28 Black Hawk helicopters. Unfortunately, the joint production of 50 units could not be realized due to financial issues.
In accordance with its decision dated August 15, 1998, the Ministry of National Defense delivered the sole source Request for Proposal file for 50 UH-60s to Sikorsky Aircraft representatives at the end of October 1998. Following the conclusion of negotiations, a contract was inked worth US$ 561.4 million between the parties on February 3, 1999. The first 20 helicopters delivered between 1999 and 2000 were the S70A-28 Black Hawk model, which was on the production line for the US Army. The other 30 helicopters were delivered as the S-70A-28D model with a digital cockpit. Subsequently, the first 20 helicopters were upgraded to the "D" model.
The contract for the purchase of eight S-70B-6 (SH-60B) Sea Hawk helicopters for the Turkish Navy to be used in Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) missions was signed on February 19, 1998, and the helicopters were delivered between April 2002 and November 2002. According to the additional Sea Hawk requirement of the Turkish Naval Forces Command, a contract was signed with Sikorksy on June 24, 2005, for the purchase of a second batch of 17 helicopters (one S-70B purchased in the first batch was replaced after it crashed during a training flight). Although deliveries were supposed to begin in 2009, the final acceptance of the first six helicopters, which were ready for acceptance in September 2010, and the provisional acceptance of which were made in the US in November 2010, could only be finalized in early 2011. The delivery of the 17 helicopters ordered as part of the project was completed in early July 2012. Sikorsky delivered one more S-70B Sea Hawk to the Turkish Naval Forces Command in the following period as compensation for the delayed deliveries.
Turkish Utility Helicopter Program (TUHP)
On February 21, 2014, a contract was signed between SSM (Undersecretariat of Defense Industry, later became SSB/Defense Industry Agency) and the main contractor TUSAŞ (Turkish Aerospace), under the Turkish Utility
Helicopter Program (TUHP) project, which was initiated to meet the Medium-lift Utility Helicopter needs of the Turkish Armed Forces and public institutions through under-license production in Türkiye. The contract covers the delivery of 109 T70 helicopters and services such as spare parts, ground support equipment, technical documentation, and the acquisition of Depot-Level Maintenance capability.
As part of the project, a total of 109 T70 model helicopters, based on the S-70i International Black Hawk model, in two different configurations for six different users (11 for the Turkish General Staff, 22 for the Land Forces Command, 6 for the Air Force Command, 30 for the Gendarmerie General Command, 20 for the General
Directorate of Security and 20 for the General Directorate of Forestry) were planned to be manufactured in Türkiye by Turkish Aerospace (TUSAŞ - the main contractor) and by Sikorsky and Aselsan (the main subcontractors). TUSAŞ will perform the assembly of the gearboxes of the T70 Helicopters, the production of all main components such as the cabin, cockpit, tail cone, horizontal and vertical tail, main and tail rotor blades, design and integration activities for modifications, final assembly, testing and flight activities, and deliveries of the helicopters. TUSAŞ will also conduct the Integrated Logistics Support (ILS) activities of the program.
As the Engine Subcontractor, TEI will oversee producing 60 different components corresponding to roughly 58% of the T700-TEI-701D engine, as well as engine assembly, final testing, qualification, and configuration management. Hot spot parts of the engine, such as the combustion chamber, will also be produced by TEI for the first time. With this project, TEI also gets the chance to perform Depot Level Maintenance (DLM) of the T700 engines in the TAF inventory with domestically produced parts and has the right to perform DLM activities competitively for a very wide geography outside of Türkiye. On the other hand, subcontractor Alp Aviation will manufacture the helicopter main, middle, and rear gears and gearbox assemblies, engine accessory gearbox assembly, dynamic products such as propeller shaft and main shaft and their assembly groups, mechanical flight control system, landing gear detail parts, assembly and shafts (including testing and engineering services), as well as flight safety structural assemblies and spare parts.
Within the scope of the project, all US export licenses were obtained between Sikorsky and the domestic subcontractors, and the contract covering 109 helicopters, which is planned to be delivered between 2021 and 2026, with an estimated 67% local content, entered into force on June 7, 2016, 28 months after the signing of the contract. Under the program, the number of T70s to be produced for the General Directorate of Forestry was reduced from 20 to 3, and 17 T70 helicopters will be delivered to the Turkish Armed Forces and the Gendarmerie General Command.
T70 Helicopter
The T70, which is designed together with Sikorsky Aircraft specific to Türkiye, will be a 10-ton class medium-lift utility helicopter equipped with modern equipment and able to carry 18 passengers. The T70 is designed to have several features of the UH-60M Helicopter, such as a monobloc fuselage in which the national mission equipment can be easily integrated (it is stated that it consists of 70% fewer parts compared to the UH-60L and has a 15-20% longer service life), four 8x10 inch wide NVG compatible smart CMFDs (Center Multi-Function Displays), dual a Digital Automatic Flight Control System (autopilot) paired with a four-axis flight director, advanced communication system equipment consisting of FM/VHF/UHF radios, INS/GPS Assisted Navigation System, Advanced Exhaust System (AES replaces GE Hover Infrared Suppression System/HIRSS and produces 40% less IR signature from the side and 80% from the tail), improved digital cockpit design, enhanced ballistic tolerance, upgraded transmission, more durable turboshaft engines (T700-TEI-7001D Engine with DEC-HMU control system and 701C type controls), main rotor and tail rotor with wide-beam composite blades, integrated Platform Maintenance Management System, main cabin with Active Vibration Control System, and the Integrated Vehicle Health Management System (IVHMS) with Voice and Data Recorder and Collision Resistant Memory Unit. The new composite blades on the main rotor (UH-60L/S-70s use titanium rotor hubs and a titanium main blade crossbeam) will provide an additional 227 kg (500lb) increase in the helicopter's lift capacity. According to Sikorsky, the T70 will have an operational radius of approximately 200km with 15 fully equipped soldiers at an altitude of 1,820m and an air temperature of 30°C with standard fuel and will be able to stay in the air for 1.5 hours in a 100 km radius if necessary. In a Combat Search and Rescue/Search and Rescue (CSAR/SAR) scenario, the T70 will be able to rescue four civilian casualties or a military pilot in a 370 km radius at sea level and 35°C, thanks to dual internal additional fuel tanks. The helicopter will be armed with two 20mm cannons from Nexter and two 7.62 six-barrel M134 Miniguns for CSAR missions. In a Fire Fighting mission, the T70 will be able to carry 2,721kg of water with its Bambi bucket and make two sorties without refueling to a water source at a distance of 46 km (25 nm). The mission radius of the helicopter at a temperature of 30°C and an altitude of 1,820m is stated as 235 km (127 nm).
The S-70i International Black Hawk (IBH) Basic Helicopter for development activities was handed over to Sikorsky on June 22, 2016, at a ceremony held at the PZL Mielec (acquired by Sikorsky) facilities in Poland.
According to the demands of the Turkish Armed Forces, PZL Mielec made several modifications to the helicopter and introduced new features such as the Rescue Winch, Internal Auxiliary Fuel Tank, Cargo Hook, Integrated Vehicle Health Management System (IVHMS), Pal Icebreaker System, and Rotor Brake. Sikorsky and Aselsan will replace the Flight and Mission Management System on the helicopter, which will be used as a test platform, with the Integrated Modular Avionics System (IMAS), also known as the "Aselsan Mission Management System," whose software and hardware are being developed entirely indigenously by Aselsan. The new integrated digital cockpit developed for the T70/S-70i Helicopters consists of the INS/GPS Navigation System, Mission Management System, and Avionics Central Control Computer with its avionics architecture, a new human-machine interface, modern software architecture, and a total of four 8x10-inch Color Multi-function Displays
(CMFD, expected to be integrated with STM digital map and sensor symbology), two of which are "Super Smart" equipped with internal processors. The S-70i IBH Basic Helicopter was brought to Aselsan facilities in Ankara on February 25, 2017. This helicopter was used as the Engineering Development Test Platform (Test Bed) for the integration, flight test, and qualification processes of the new avionic suite being developed in collaboration between Aselsan and Sikorsky. In March 2019, TUSAŞ Engine Industries (TEI) delivered the first T700-TEI-701D engines to TUSAŞ for the T70 helicopter. The first T70 Utility Helicopter, produced by TUSAŞ, the main contractor, was rolled out of the hangar in November 2019.
On December 13, 2022, the delivery of T70 Helicopters started under the TUHP, which entered into force on June 7, 2016. The first delivery was made to the Gendarmerie General Command, followed by the General Directorate of Forestry, Land Forces Command, Special Forces Command, and Air Forces Command, with the delivery made on January 11, 2023. All main components of the T70 Helicopter, which is reported to have a 90-95% local content rate, are manufactured by TUSAŞ. The harness that covers the helicopter fuselage like a neural network is manufactured by TUSAŞ and subindustry companies, the avionic suite is manufactured by Aselsan, the engines by TEI, the landing gear, main flight critical and dynamic products, and the flight control mechanism by Alp Aviation. Within the framework of the TUHP, which covers the delivery of a total of 109 T70 model helicopters over a ten-year period, it is intended to produce 12 T70s of the first package (consisting of 38 units) in 2023, for which production approval has been received from the US government, and the remaining 21 T70s in
2024, thus completing the production process of the first package. Sikorsky continues talks with US authorities to obtain production approval for the 2nd package of T70 TUHs. This demand, for which Sikorsky is making positive efforts, will be discussed by the US Congress due to the high budget of 71 helicopters. If approved by the US Congress, the number of helicopters to be produced will rise to 109. Despite the risk posed by the CAATSA embargo against Türkiye, Sikorsky is apparently making a lot of effort to have this demand approved.
The Black Hawk adventure started with the first S-70A-17 delivered to the Gendarmerie General
Command in December 1988, and today continues with the T70, which was manufactured by TUSAŞ and once again delivered to the Gendarmerie General Command on December 13, 2022. For more than 30 years, the Black Hawk has been the pillar of land aviation and will remain in service with the Turkish Armed Forces for decades to come. In order to lessen the burden of the aging Black Hawk fleet it, is critical to obtain a license from US authorities to ensure the production of the second package of T70 TUHs
