Goodrich to Equip UH-60 Helicopters With VHMS
Contract award is potentially valued at $300 million over life of the program
(Charlotte, N.C., October 7, 2008) -- Goodrich Corporation (NYSE: GR) has received a contract from the U.S. Army to provide up to 1,000 Vehicle Health Management Systems (VHMS) for UH-60A/L Black Hawk helicopters. The five-year Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract is potentially valued at up to $300 million and covers deliveries through 2013. The VHMS will be produced by Goodrich's Sensors and Integrated Systems operations in Vergennes, Vt.
The VHMS monitors the entire helicopter mechanical drive train from the engines to the rotor system, flight manual exceedances, and hundreds of aircraft system signals. The system also includes a cockpit voice flight data recorder and crash survivable memory unit. Advanced information provided by VHMS alerts operators to take preventative maintenance steps that avoid collateral damage and more costly future repairs. Goodrich VHMS systems have been battlefield proven on the UH-60 and CH-47D during Army deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Kip Freeman, Business Director, Goodrich Sensors and Integrated Systems, said, "Strong endorsement from soldiers in the field led to equipping the legacy Black Hawk fleet with the VHMS system. After initial flight testing showed promising capability to improve the safety and effectiveness of our troops, Senator Leahy led the effort in Congress to fund a program to install our system on helicopters being deployed to war zones. Goodrich is extremely proud to participate in a program that helps the men and women of our Armed Forces around the world."
In commenting on the many benefits of the equipment, COL L. Neil Thurgood, Utility Helicopters Project Manager, U.S. Army, said, "The Goodrich VHMS system has proven to be a great benefit by increasing readiness and safety while reducing the maintenance burden on soldiers. We have more than 100,000 combat flight hours on the system and have received an immediate benefit of reducing NMCM or Non-Mission Capability Maintenance rates by 10 percent. This equates to having an additional five aircraft available for missions in each Combat Aviation Brigade. Recent Army studies show the system also reduces costs and soldier burden by reducing maintenance test flights by 30 percent, mission aborts by 29 percent and unscheduled maintenance by 16 percent."
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