Australia Selects U.S. Navy, Sikorsky Aircraft, and Lockheed Martin to Supply Helicopters to Australia Navy

Efforts by the International Trade Administration’s Advocacy Center have resulted in the Australian Defense Department awarding a contract to the U.S. Navy – under the U.S. Government Foreign Military Service program – to supply 24 MH-60r Seahawk helicopters to the Royal Australian Navy. Australia’s Defense Minister Stephen Smith made the formal announcement on June 16, 2011.

The win is valued at approximately $3 billion, all of which is U.S. export content, supporting nearly 16,200 US jobs. Sikorsky Aircraft, the MH-60R airframe manufacturer, and Lockheed Martin, the avionics and mission systems integrator, are the primary industry partners on the MH-60R. General Electric, Raytheon, CAE and 30-40 smaller American suppliers also have a role in the sale.

The U.S. Navy, Sikorsky, and Lockheed beat out NHIndustries, a consortium composed of Agusta Westland, a subsidiary of Finmeccanica SpA (Italy); Europcopter (France), and Europcopter Deutschland GmbH(Germany), subsidiaries of EADS; and Fokker Aerospace Group (Netherlands) for the contract.

The Advocacy Center coordinates U.S. Government resources and authority in order to level the playing field on behalf of U.S. business interests as they compete against foreign firms for specific international contracts or other U.S. export opportunities. In doing so, the Advocacy Center helps create and retain U.S. jobs through exports. Since its creation in 1993, the Advocacy Center has helped hundreds of U.S. companies--small, medium and large enterprises--in various industry sectors win government contracts across the globe.