UH-60 Blackhawk

The Black Hawk is the Army's most important utility helicopter used for air assault, air cavalry, and aeromedical evacuation units. It can carry 11 combat-loaded, air assault troops, the Black Hawk also has a cargo hook and it can lift a 105-millimeter field howitzer and 30 rounds of ammunition, or a terrian vehicle like the Humvee.
The helicopter can be configured to carry out medical evacuation, command-and-control, search-and-rescue, armed escort, electronic warfare and executive transport missions.

The Blackhawk was first deployed in 1978, the Black Hawk's advanced technology makes it easy to maintain in the field. The UH-60A, was developed for troop transport, command and control, MedEvac, and reconnaissance, to replace the UH-1 Series "Huey" in the combat assault role.
Both the pilot and co-pilot are provided with armor-protective seats. Protective armor on the Black Hawk can withstand hits from 23mm shells.
The Black Hawk has a composite titanium and fiberglass four-bladed main rotor, is powered by two General Electric T700-GE-700 1622 shp turboshaft engines, and has a speed of 163 mph (142 knots).

Since 1978 variants of the Black Hawk are operational or have been ordered by 25 international customers: the Argentine Air Force, Royal Australian Army, Bahrain, Brazil, Brunei, Chile, Colombian Air Force, Egypt, Greece, Hong Kong, Israel, Japan Self Defence Force, Jordan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, People's Republic of China, Royal Saudi Land Forces Army Aviation Command, the Turkish Jandarma, Spain, The Philippine Air Force, Taiwan, and Thailand. Sikorsky has delivered more than 2,500 helicopters of the Hawk family.

From 1978 until 1989 the Army procured UH-60A model aircraft. In October 1989, an upgrade program resulted in a model designation change from UH-60A to UH-60L. The UH-60L version that provides 24 percent more power than the original 1970 UH-60A model. The Army has 483 UH-60L models of a total of 1,463 UH-60?s.

In April 2001, the US Army approved an upgrade program for more than 1500 Black Hawks to UH-60M standard. First flight of the UH60M is scheduled for 2003 with entry into service in 2006. The program will extend the service life of the helicopter until 2025. The upgrade will include new wide chord composite spar main rotor blades (which will provide 500 lbs more lift than the current UH-60L blade), digitised 1553 bus-based glass cockpit and avionics suite with four multi-function displays, advanced flight control computer, strengthened fuselage and advanced infrared suppression. A new General Electric T700-GE-701D engine is also being developed.