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a Foreign Military Sale (FMS) contract was con-
cluded during U.S. President Donald Trump’s
first state visit to India in February. Sikorsky
is to deliver the first Romeo helicopter to the
Navy early next year and deliveries of all 24
helicopters on contract are to be completed [ AIR SYSTEMS ]
by 2023. The acquisition of a new ASW/ ASuW
helicopter is a key component of the Navy’s
‘Capability Based Perspective Plan’.

“We are very pleased to learn that India is
moving forward with the purchase of 24
MH-60R multi-mission helicopters. We stand
behind the U.S. Navy and look forward to having
the Indian Navy become the fourth interna-
tional country, joining Australia, Denmark and
Saudi Arabia, to operate the MH-60R Romeo,
the most advanced maritime helicopter in the
world. This platform will provide the Indian
Navy with the capability to identify, engage,
and defeat maritime security threats along
with the ability to perform secondary missions
including vertical replenishment and search
and rescue,” said Dan Spoor, Vice President,
Sikorsky Maritime and Mission Systems, fol-
lowing announcement of the deal. Lockheed
Martin will also be discharging offsets through
Transfer of Technology (ToT) to Indian offset
partners for manufacture of products and
services. Sikorsky bagged the Indian MH-60R
win after an unsuccessful earlier bid for S-70B
Seahawk helicopters, which were selected by
the Navy in 2014, to meet its requirement for 16
multirole ASW/ ASuW helicopters (with options
for eight more), which ran aground in 2017.

Romeo Force Multiplier
India is the fourth customer for the sophisti-
cated ASW/ ASuW MH-60Rs, in addition to
the Royal Danish Navy, Royal Australian Navy
(RAN)and Royal Saudi Naval Forces, who have
Warrior ordered 9, 24 and 10 of the type respectively.
Lockheed Martin Rotary and Mission Systems
(LM RMS) will develop, integrate and install an
India MH-60R System Configuration (SC) onto
Lot 14 USN Government Furnished aircraft,
according to a March 24 notification posted
on the website beta.sam.gov. The notification
INDIAN NAVY FINALISES ACQUISITION OF 24 states that the Indian helicopters will include
modification of an existing Royal Saudi Naval
SIKORSKY MH-60R HELICOPTERS Forces (RSNF) MH-60R SC18-03 baseline
to create an Initial India baseline. The mari-
Atul Chandra time helicopters will be fitted with APS-153(V)
Multi-Mode radars, Airborne Low Frequency
System (ALFS), AN/AAS-44C(V) Multi-
India’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) has inked a deal worth approx- Spectral Targeting System, Embedded Global
imately USD2.6 billion for a new anti-submarine and anti-surface Positioning System/Inertial Navigation Systems
warfare (ASW/ASuW) helicopter for the Navy. The contract for (EGI) with Selective Availability/Anti-Spoofing
purchase of 24 Sikorsky MH-60R multi-mission helicopters under Module (SAASM) amongst other equipment.

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