NAVAL AIR SYSTEMS COMMAND, Patuxent River, MD – The first MH-60R Multi-Mission helicopter flew 1.7 hours on its maiden flight July 19, 2001.
“This first flight represents a major milestone in the life of this critical 21st century Naval aviation program,” said Captain Bill Shannon, the Multi-Mission Helicopter Program Manager (PMA-299). “This is the first SH-60B to be remanufactured into the new MH-60R configuration. There will be eight more remanufactured MH-60Rs built before new factory-fresh MH-60Rs begin rolling off the production line.”
The Navy’s Helicopter Master Plan is a major naval aviation initiative that upgrades the Navy’s helicopter warfighting capability, improves readiness and reduces life cycle costs. The plan calls for reducing the Navy’s helicopter fleet from eight different helicopter types to two variations H-60 helicopter, the MH-60R and the MH-60S. Captain Shannon added, “The MH-60R and MH-60S will provide greatly increased capability to our warfighters while lowering the operating and support costs of the entire Navy helicopter fleet.”
This helicopter represents the cornerstone of the Navy’s Helicopter Master Plan. When combined with the MH-60S (the Navy’s replacement for the H-46 helicopter, used for vertical replenishment) it will meet the full range of the Navy’s helicopter needs well into the 21st century. Almost 500 of these two types of aircraft are scheduled to be built.
The first flight of the MH-60R occurred at Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation, the helicopter’s manufacturer, at their production facility in Stratford, Connecticut. "The successful flight of the first test aircraft brings the MH-60R one step closer to production," said John Wakefield, Sikorsky's Vice President for Maritime Helicopters. Sikorsky test pilots Chris Geanacopoulos and Tage Erickson flew the initial flight and successfully completed acceptance requirements such as engine power checks, autorotation and vibration checks.
The MH-60R flew an additional 2.3 hours in preparation for Navy acceptance. Next, it will be flown to Naval Air Station Patuxent River in early August for flight test instrumentation installation. Following this, the MH-60R will be flown to Lockheed Martin Systems Integration (LMSI) in Owego, New York for installation of a new avionics suite, a new mission systems suite and a glass cockpit, which is common with the MH-60S.
The new mission system includes the Advanced Low Frequency dipping SONAR, a multi-mode RADAR that includes an Inverse Synthetic Aperture RADAR and Periscope Detection, upgraded ESM, and an Integrated Self- Defense Suite.
There are two prototype MH-60Rs (Romeos) currently in developmental flight-test at Pax River. The additional nine remanufactured MH-60Rs to be produced by Sikorsky and Lockheed include four test articles and five low-rate initial production helicopters scheduled for delivery between 2001 and 2003.
These helicopters will be used for extensive Development and Operational testing at Pax River under the program direction of PMA-299. Following the remanufacture of these nine helicopters, all further MH-60Rs will be new production versions.
The MH-60R Multi-Mission Helicopter Program, valued at $6B provides the Fleet an increased capability over that of the extremely successful SH-60B and SH-60F helicopters first fielded in 1984 and 1989, respectively.
The MH-60R will be a major contributor to the success of the Carrier Battlegroup as it fulfills the missions of Undersea warfare (USW), Surface Warfare (SUW), Command, Control, Communications and Information (C3I) and other traditional helicopter missions, such as, Search and Rescue (SAR). The MH-60R will fly from frigates, destroyers and aircraft carriers and carry out missions currently performed by the SH-60B/Fand the S-3B.

-USN-