Lockheed Martin, willing to open Blackhawk maintenance center in Bucharest

US group Lockheed Martin, one of the biggest providers of military technology in the world, is trying to convince the Romanian Army to buy the famous Blackhawk helicopter as an “all-in-one” solution for all types of missions.

Unlike its competitors Bell Helicopters and Airbus, Lockheed Martin doesn’t plan to build the helicopters for the Romanian Army in Romania but promises to turn local company Romaero Bucharest into a center for the refurbishment and maintenance of all Blackhawk helicopters used by the company’s clients in Europe, according to the group’s representatives.

“This will be the only center of this kind in Europe. Sikorsky has a production center and a large number of Blackhawk helicopter users in Europe, but doesn’t have such a center for refurbishment, maintenance and repairs, and Romania has been considered to be the best option due to its vast aeronautical experience,” said John Neilson, Lockheed Martin communication director, in an interview with local Hotnews.ro.

The center would also personalize the Blackhawk helicopters according to the demands of various clients, an operation that doubles or triples the value of such an aircraft. He added that such a center would operate for at least 30 years.

The Blackhawk helicopters for the European market are produced by the Sikorsky factory in Poland and Lockheed Martin says it wouldn’t be efficient to produce such helicopters in Romania as well.

Meanwhile, its competitors Bell Helicopters and Airbus are willing to produce helicopters in Romania to convince the Defense Ministry to buy their products. Bell helicopter is willing to produce the Viper attack helicopter in Brasov while Airbus already has a factory in Brasov and is looking to convince the Romanian state to buy its H215M model so that it can start producing them here.

Romania may buy some 70-80 military helicopters in the next 10-15 years, the total value of these contracts amounting to several billions of euros.

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(Photo: lockheedmartin.com)

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