Jane Edwards
The Defense Department is set to assess whether to approve a $29 billion program to buy 200 heavy-lift cargo helicopters from Lockheed Martin for use by the U.S. Marine Corps, Bloomberg reported Monday.
Anthony Capaccio and Julie Johnsson write the defense acquisition board will meet Thursday to decide on the proposed low-rate production of 24 Sikorsky-built CH-53K King Stallion helicopters.
DoD documents say the initial contract would include the acquisition of two helicopters designed to carry 27,000 pounds of cargo with a plan to increase the procurement of such aircraft to four units in 2018 and 14 by 2021.
Bruce Tanner, Lockheed’s chief financial officer, told Bloomberg the CH-53K program is one of the factors that incited the company to acquire Sikorsky from United Technologies Corp. for approximately $9 billion.
Tanner added that negotiations on the potential sale of King Stallion aircraft to Israel and Germany are now under way.
“From a revenue perspective it is going to be the lion’s share of what we expect from Sikorsky for the next 10 to 15 years, probably, once it gets into production,†he added, according to the report.
