Duncan Looi
NEW Zealand has confirmed the inking of a deal for five MH-60R Seahawks with the US. Manufactured by Lockheed Martin company Sikorsky, the naval helicopters are to be operated by the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) and maintained by RNZAF personnel.
Procurement of these helicopters guarantee interoperability with Australia and partner forces, providing essential capabilities such as anti-surface (ASuW) and underwater warfare (ASW), search and rescue (SAR), transportation of personnel and supplies between ship and shore, and support maritime counter-terrorism operations. An NZDF statement listed that the MH-60R’s weapons systems can include Mk 54 ASW torpedos, AGM-114 Hellfire air-to-surface missiles (ASM), crew-served machine guns and Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS).
The agreement covers the procurement of the helicopters to be delivered from 2030 onwards, in addition to spares, weapons and equipment while funding has been earmarked for future infrastructure design costs and temporary infrastructure to facilitate the aircraft in RNZAF Base Auckland. The NZDF also said that the capital investment will be in the amount of US$928 million on top of a US$62m in average annual operating funding over the next 10 years.
Several months back in June, New Zealand received US approval on a potential separate Foreign Military Sale (FMS) of five MH-60Rs and Mk 54 ASW torpedoes along with associated equipment valued at around US$1.57 billion. The country selected the MH-60R in August to replace the RNZAF’s fleet of Kaman SH-2G(I) Super Seasprite helicopters, as the helicopters would be “interoperable with our ally Australia and partner defence forces and will be able to contribute to multi-national coalition missions.”
The NZDF stated that “the project is expected to be undertaken in three tranches. The first is the helicopter replacements, the second will concentrate on infrastructure and training systems at Base Auckland Whenuapai, and the third will look at investing in vertical take-off and landing uncrewed systems to complement the helicopters.” In addition, the sale includes 225 APKWS missiles together with guidance sections, 65 AGM-114R Hellfire missiles, four M36E8 Hellfire Captive Air Training Missiles (CATM), five M240D machine guns and GAU-21 (FN Herstal M3M) heavy machine guns among other items. A second US$69m deal encompasses the supply of 20 Mk 54 torpedoes and other equipment to New Zealand.
A Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) release said that “The Government of New Zealand has requested to buy five (5) MH-60R Multi-Mission Helicopters; seven (7) Link 16 Multifunctional Information Distribution Systems Joint Tactical Radio Systems (5 installed, 2 spares); fourteen (14) Embedded Global Positioning System/Precise Positioning Service/Inertial Navigation Systems with Selective Availability Anti-Spoofing Module (10 installed, 4 spares); five (5) Airborne Low Frequency Sonar systems; -–shp/adj/dl (Pix:AUS DOD)
