The Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk is one of the most ubiquitous helicopter’s to be built, doing anything from cargo and troop transport to medical evacuations to frontline combat air support. But now instead of needing separate UH-60’s for each mission type, you just need the one. On the 15th of April 2026, Sikorsky announced their new Armed Black Hawk kit to give nation’s existing fleet of UH-60M’s the ability to provide both transport and gunship roles at the same time.
History
The Sikorsky UH-60 was developed from a need for a replacement to the UH1 Iroquois (Huey) in the late 1960’s. The United States Army launched the Utility Tactical Transport Aircraft System (UTTAS) program to find suitable contenders. There were 2 main contenders for the program, Boeing-Vertol’s YUH-61A, and Sikorsky’s YUH-60A. The YUH-60A would first fly on the 17th of October 1974 with the first 3 out of 4 prototypes being delivered to the US Army for testing in March of 1976.
In December of 1976 the US Army would choose the YUH-60A as the winner and order production of the aircraft re-designating it as the UH-60. The UH-60A would enter service in June 1979 with the 101st Combat Aviation Brigade. It’s first combat missions would take place during the Invasion of Grenada in 1983 and would go on to be used in nearly all conflicts since. It would be primarily used for the transport of troops and cargo and for MEDEVAC. It would also be used as a gunship with the development of the Direct Action Penetrator (DAP) variants which removed it’s transport capability in favour of being armed with various guided and unguided munitions.
The UH-60M is one of the latest variants of the Black Hawk family which entered service in 2006 and on the 15th of April 2026 an armament kit for the UH-60M was announced which allowed it to serve in both transport and gunship roles at the same time. Formally known as the Armed Black Hawk Kit the idea is to give the UH-60M a wider set of capabilities so that it can be more flexible in it’s mission set without the need for extensive modifications or for separate fleets for each purpose. The kit give the UH-60M a pair of stub wings similar to what is seen on the MH-60 DAP aircrafts but without the need to remove it’s transport capabilities. The stub wings allow it to carry a variety of guided weapons such as modern AGM-114 Hellfire II, AGM-179 JAGM, Spike NLOS and APKWS rockets along with unguided Hydra rockets and a variety of gunpods.
Specifications
Weight
- Empty - 5,675kg (12,511lbs)
- Max Takeoff - 9,979kg (22,000lbs)
Size
- Height - 5.13m (16ft 10in)
- Width - 2.36m (7ft 9in)
- Length - 15.27m (50ft 1in)
Powerplant
- 2 x General Electric T700-GE-701C/D Turboshaft Engines
Crew
- 2 x Pilots
- 2 x Gunners
- 11 x Troops to transport
Performance
- Cruise Speed - 282kph (175mph)
- Max Speed - 294kph (183mph)
- Never Exceed Speed - 357kph (222mph)
- Combat Range - 590km (370mi)
- Service Ceiling - 5,800m (19,000ft)
Armament
- Guns
- 2 x 7.62mm M134 Miniguns (Forward firing when not used by gunner crew)
- 2 x .50cal GAU-19 (either belt fed from the cabin or standalone as the GP-19 gun pod)
- 4 x 7/19 round 70mm Hydra Rocket Pods
- 4 x 7 round APKWS Guided Rocket Pods
- 8 x AIM-92 Stinger Air to Air Missiles
- 16 x AGM-114 Hellfire II Air to Ground Missiles
- 16 x AGM-179 JAGM
- 16 x Spike NLOS
Avionics
- AN/ALE-47 Countermeasure dispensers
- AN/AAR-57 Common Missile Warning System (CMWS)
- AN/APR-39C(V) Radar Warning Sets
- Common Infrared Countermeasures (CIRCM)
- Pilot Night Vision Helmet Displays
- EO/IR Sensor with Laser Designator
Pictures
Images from the Army Aviation Warfighting Summit
View of the cabin of the UH-60M with the Armament kit installed. (Note the retained transport capability whilst also carrying weapons.
Sell sheet for the Armed Black Hawk Kit
- Yes
- No
- Tech Tree Vehicle
- Squadron Vehicle
- Event Vehicle
- Premium Vehicle
- I said no
- 11.3
- 11.7
- 12.0
- 12.3
- 12.7
- 13.0+
- I said no
Sources
The Aviationist - Sikorsky Announces New Armed Black Hawk Kit
FlightGlobal - Sikorsky unveils armed UH-60 variant with modular weapons kit
Vertical Mag - Sikorsky offers new armed Black Hawk helicopter kits to deliver additional mission capabilities
Wikipedia - Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk
Lockheed Martin - Armed Black Hawk
Lockheed Martin - Sikorsky Offers New Armed BLACK HAWK® Helicopter Kits to Deliver Additional Mission Capabilities
Army Recognition - U.S. Introduces Armed Black Hawk Kits Enabling Precision Strike Without New Attack Helicopters.
The Defense Post - Sikorsky Unveils Armed Black Hawk Kits
