WARSAW, Poland (BulgarianMilitary.com) — Poland will receive four S-70i Black Hawk helicopters from Lockheed Martin’s subsidiary Sikorsky for the needs of the Poland’s Special Forces. On the side of Poland, the deal was signed by the Polish Defence Minister Mariusz Blaszczak, learned BulgarianMilitary.com

The helicopters under the above deal will be manufactured by PZL Mielec, which is the group’s Polish subsidiary and it is expected the deliveries to be completed by the end of this year.

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Blaszczak commented, “This is the first phase of the cooperation between the Polish Armed Forces and PZL Mielec.”

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The value of the agreement, including related logistics, equipment and training packages, is a total of 683.4 million zloty (US $180.7 million) and it was revealed in a statement of the ministry.

During the official signing ceremony, which took place on 25th January 2019, Blaszczak said, “Together, we achieved success, because the Polish Armed Forces will operate these helicopters. We acquired them at a good price.”

The Sikorsky S-70 is a U.S. medium transport/utility helicopter family manufactured by Sikorsky Aircraft. It was developed for the needs of the U.S. Army in the 1970s, winning a competition to be designated the UH-60 Black Hawk. The goal was it to replace the UH-1 Iroquois family of utility medium-lift helicopters in 1972. New and improved variants of the UH-60 have been developed since.

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The EH-60 solution was intended to conduct electronic warfare and special operations. Due to weight increases from the addition of mission equipment and other changes, the U.S. Army ordered the improved UH-60L in 1987 Development of the next improved variant, the UH-60M, was approved in 2001, to extend the service life of the UH-60 design into the 2020s.

The UH-60M and its international variant, the S-70i, feature a glass cockpit, GPS navigation, an integrated Flight Management System, and a significant upgrade to the powertrain and rotor system adding both power and lift capability.

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Source: DefenseNews, Wikipedia