The Senate Armed Services Committee is encouraging — but not mandating — the Army to pursue an eleventh multiyear procurement contract for the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter beyond fiscal year 2026.
The committee, in the report accompanying its FY-26 defense authorization bill, wrote that another multiyear contract for the newer UH-60M models of the aircraft is needed to “ensure adequate inventories” of the helicopters for both the active Army and National Guard, due to the service’s cancelation of the UH-60V modification program.
When the Army announced its aviation rebalance in February 2024, which included the cancelation of the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft and the phaseout of the UH-60V, the service also committed to a new multiyear contract for the UH-60M.
But this past May, the Army announced its transformation initiative at the direction of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, calling for a deemphasis of manned aviation and an increased investment in unmanned systems.
Since the rollout of the transformation initiative, Army leaders have been noncommittal about whether the service will enter an eleventh multiyear contract for the Black Hawk, with Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George telling lawmakers earlier this year they would “come back and look at that.”
In its FY-26 request, the Army has included more than $730 million to procure 24 UH-60M helicopters under the current multiyear.
An executive from Sikorsky, the prime contractor for the Black Hawk, told reporters during the Army Aviation Association of America conference in May that the company has submitted a proposal for multiyear 11 to the Army, and the goal is to be on contract by December 2026.
The Army provided a statement to Inside Defense last week in response to questions about a possible multiyear beyond FY-26, saying it “continues to review various contracts as part of the acquisition strategy beyond 2026.”
“The current multiyear contract will conclude in 2026 and will be executed as planned,” the service stated.
Senate authorizers, in the bill report, are directing the Army secretary to brief the congressional defense committees by Sept. 30, 2026 on “measures the Army is taking” to support a new multiyear procurement for the Black Hawk, including the number of aircraft to be included, delivery schedules and contracting in advance for various components and subsystems.
“The committee supports Army efforts to prepare for a fiscal year 2027 [multiyear procurement], including any long lead or advance procurement actions that can be taken to streamline schedules, maintain the supplier base and secure key components to ensure timely deliveries,” the authorizers wrote.
Another provision in the Senate authorizers’ report aims to address concerns over the Army’s plan to divest its aerial cavalry squadrons — one of the planned restructurings laid out in the transformation initiative. This restructure will involve divesting the older AH-64D Apache aircraft and “pure fleeting” the force with the newer AH-64E models, senior leaders said during the AAAA conference.
Senate authorizers wrote in the report that they support the idea of achieving cost savings by pure fleeting to the AH-64E, however they are concerned about the “lack of details regarding the proposed realignment, particularly how the Army will maintain sufficient capability and capacity through its transformation.”
The committee has asked the Army secretary to submit a report by Feb. 15, 2026 to the congressional defense committees on the reasons behind the aviation restructure, an investment plan to sustain the existing AH-64E fleet and a description of current technologies that can conduct reconnaissance in place of the air cavalry squadrons.
The committee has also included a provision in the report asking the Government Accountability Office’s comptroller general to assess the Army’s Future Long Range Assault Aircraft program, the eventual successor to the Black Hawk, and brief the congressional defense committees by April 15, 2026. The briefing is to include information about the risks in safety, cost and performance found during prototyping, as well as lessons learned from the development of the V-22 Osprey. FLRAA, similar to the V-22, will also incorporate a tiltrotor into its design.
Originally published Inside Defense