Sikorsky S-65,S-70 and S-80

[Iranian F-14A]

These are probbley my all time favorite helicopters,well,right next to the Mi-24 Hind.The thread on RAF S-65s got me to thinking.What countries would or might have been interested in these choppers? Starting with the S-70 Blackhawk/Seahawk.This chopper was designed as a replacement for the legendary UH-1 Huey,so the number of possible customers should be pretty high.Heres what I came up with.First the real world stuff.

1.Germany-Looked at getting some S-70s to replace the old UH-1Ds,but decided to keep the Hueys until the NH-90 came online.I personally think the S-70B Seahawk would have looked good in the navy camo,like the Lynx.

2.Canada-Canada looked at a specialized rescue model known as the Maplehawk to replace the CH-113s,this contract going to the AW520.Still,the Yellow SAR scheme would have looked great.The Maplehawk,from what I saw of the model,resembled the MH-60K.Next,the Canadian Navy looked at the S-70B to replace its Sea Kings.

3.Spain-The Spanish Army looked at replacing its UH-1Hs eith some S-70s,before deciding to go with Bell 212 Twin Hueys.

4.Switzerland-The Swiss AF looked at buying some S-70s,before going with the Super Puma.

5.Finland,Sweden and Norway-The S-70 was part of the Nordic Standard Helicopter Programme evaluation.This was mainly for utility choppers,but naval units were to also be ordered.In the end,the NH-90 was selected.

6.Venezuela-Ordered,but cancelled when they decided to go with the current Mi-17.

Now a few I'd like to see

6.Jordan-I know they have 1 or 2 for VIP,but that 3 tone camo,like on the F-5s,AH-1s and Mirages would look great on the S-70.

7.Greece-Maybe a Greek AF or Army model in a european one type camo.

8.New Zealand-Believed they wanted some to replace the Hueys,could be wrong though.Still,a European one S-70 would look nice.Maybe a Seahawk too to replace the SH-2Gs with.

9.United Kingdom-Both the Seahawk and Blackhawk would look great in RAF/RA/RN markings.Too bad they didn't buy some of those Westland WS-70s.

10.Mexico-Sure,they have S-70s,but a Mexican Seahawk in the blue and yellow would look nice.

Ok,enough for now,have to think up soem more.Tell me if you guys see some possibilities for this and I'll add some.

[Matt Wiser]

Several other possible customers:

1) Imperial Iran: The Iranian Navy was buying four Kidd-class DDGs, 12 Dutch Koratener-class FFs, and wanted an Invincible-class CVH. The S-70 (SH-60) would have been a likely helo for all of those platforms. THe IIAF would have looked at MH-60s for CSAR and Special Operations. Events of late '78 and early '79 put the kibosh on those plans.

2) Kuwait: Kuwait is a likely customer for the UH-60 variant. They considered the AH-60 DAP as a cheap alternative to the AH-64 before deciding to buy the Longbow Apache.

3) Pakistan: Potential Blackhawk customer in the War on Terror.

4) India: Ka-25/27 replacement? They are looking at buying upgraded P-3s from AMARC....

5) Any Chinook operator is a potential S-65 (CH-53) customer: ROK, Japan GSDF, Canada, Italy, Egypt, Argentina, U.S. Army, etc. Imperial Iran bought the RH-53 for Naval Aviation,so...the IIAF and Army Aviation were possible customers, but the CH-47 won there.

6) Several other potential Mideast Customers for Blackhawks: UAE (Already an AH-64 operator), Oman, Egypt, Qatar,

[Iranian F-14A]

Yeah,the JGSDF S-65s had crossed my mind,with that 3 tone camo they use on the CH-47s.Heres a few more I was able to come up with while watching "12 Monkeys".

11.Israel-Already a user of both S-65 and S-70 models,the S-80 Super Stallion would be perfect replace some of the older S-65s.

12.Indonesia-After switching from east to west,Indonesia could buy some S-65s to replace Mi-6 Hooks which were retired.

13.Turkey-looked at buying about 8 S-80Es a few years back for use in the heavy transport/CSAR/Special Ops role.

14.Canada-I could see a long range SAR model of the S-65 being of use to Canada.This model would be like the HH-53B Super Jolly Green,and be painted in the Yellow SAR colors.

15.Taiwan-I heard something awhile back Taiwan was interested in buying a few S-80M Sea Dragons as part of an arms deal that included P-3s and diesel subs.

[Iranian F-14A]

Anyone have a decent profile of the S-65 or the S-70B Seahawk? I managed to get a pretty good one of the S-70A,but no B model.

[dragon]

6.Venezuela-Ordered,but cancelled when they decided to go with the current Mi-17.

Actually the Venezuelans did order the Blackhawks (five or so).  These were painted and stenciled and almost ready to be delivered by late 1998, when Hugo Chavez in a moment of idiocy (which happens frequently) in early 1999 decided that since they come from "the empire" (his term for the US), he didn't want them in Venezuelan Army service.  The helicopters were restenciled but not repainted and sent to Colombia (next door).  I will attempt to find some images of the Venezuelan Blackhawks.  Of course when the Vargas mudslides of 2000 hit, he didn't have enough helicopters to shuttle people out of the disaster area with, which forced him to accept US help that he had previously turned back in favor of the less technologically able but politically more palatable (to him at least) Cuban help.

[GTX]

Iranian,

New Zealand-Believed they wanted some to replace the Hueys,could be wrong though.Still,a European one S-70 would look nice.Maybe a Seahawk too to replace the SH-2Gs with.

New Zealand has decided on the NH-90 to replace their Iroquois - good choice I believe.  As for replacing the SH-2Gs, they just got them so give them a chance.  Even then, the way to go would be to replace it with a naval derivative of the NH-90 - the NFH variant.  This is probably what the RAN will do so there will be two levels of commonality: with the existing RNZAF NH-90s and with the Australian MRH-90s etc.

To put my what-if hat on (well half on, since this is partly true), what about China ordering more Blackhawks and possibly some derivatives such as the S-92?



Regards,

Greg

[Iranian F-14A]

16.Egypt-The Egyptian Navy could used some S-70Bs to replace the converted Sea Kings in the ASW role.THe Seahawks would be painted the old dark blue camo of the Sea Kings.

17.Poland-The S-70B could be used off the Perry Class FFGs the navy now has.

As far the S-92 is concerned,never thought of any exports for it beyond the US,and now Canada.The NH-90 and EH-101,IMHO being better helicopters compared to the S-92.Athough I could see different variants,such as CSAR,minesweeping,and tranports.

[GTX]

How about the Super, Super Stallion - the CH-53K:



Regards,

Greg

[MCS]

2.Canada-Canada looked at a specialized rescue model known as the Maplehawk to replace the CH-113s,this contract going to the AW520.Still,the Yellow SAR scheme would have looked great.The Maplehawk,from what I saw of the model,resembled the MH-60K.Next,the Canadian Navy looked at the S-70B to replace its Sea Kings.

From what the specs I saw on the Canadian 'Hawk, it would've had bulged cabin doors along with two hoists. Not sure if one of them would've been the internal cabin hoist as fitted on the PaveHawk. I'll have to see if I can dig up some more info on it.

5.Finland,Sweden and Norway-The S-70 was part of the Nordic Standard Helicopter Programme evaluation.This was mainly for utility choppers,but naval units were to also be ordered.In the end,the NH-90 was selected.

From the proposals I read only the S-92 was offered, but, I did come across some vague info on an earlier S-70A model for Norway.

6.Venezuela-Ordered,but cancelled when they decided to go with the current Mi-17.

I believe these were pretty far along when the order was cancelled. I'll see if I can find a copy of paint scheme drawing to see what they would've looked like.

Now a few I'd like to see
6.Jordan-I know they have 1 or 2 for VIP,but that 3 tone camo,like on the F-5s,AH-1s and Mirages would look great on the S-70.
9.United Kingdom-Both the Seahawk and Blackhawk would look great in RAF/RA/RN markings.Too bad they didn't buy some of those Westland WS-70s.

As far as Jordan is concerned, we're currently building new S-70A's for them for the utility role. I'll see if I can find out what the color scheme is going to be. I believe there's a thread somewhere on the board that noted the S-70A/S-70B were evaluated by the UK, not sure how far that went.

Another one to add to the list is the S-70A Battle Hawk that was proposed to Australia for their AIR87 requirement (Won by the Eurocopter Tiger). This would've been similar to the S-70A-9 the Army currently has, with the notable exception of a turreted 20mm cannon mounted under the nose.

As far as the S-92 is concerned, there is a lot of activity going on, can't really discuss the details, but, there are a number of current S-70 operators interested along with some others. I'll leave the debate of whether or not it's better than the NH-90 or the EH-101 to someone else, but, from my experience working on/with it, I think it's a helluva a/c. I do know that there's been a lot of positive feedback coming in from the commercial operators up to this point.

[Sentinel Chicken]

As far as the S-92 is concerned, there is a lot of activity going on, can't really discuss the details, but, there are a number of current S-70 operators interested along with some others. I'll leave the debate of whether or not it's better than the NH-90 or the EH-101 to someone else, but, from my experience working on/with it, I think it's a helluva a/c. I do know that there's been a lot of positive feedback coming in from the commercial operators up to this point.

Let's not forget the Collier Trophy was awarded to the Sikorsky S-92 team in 2002. Not to shabby an honor considering the other winners in the past of the Collier Trophy.  

[Iranian F-14A]

I liked the S-92 before they redesigned the tail,when it looked more like the CH-53's inverted gull wing type.I'm not sure why they changed it to the EH-101 under rotor type.I always thought the S-92 looked like a modern S-61R Jolly Green,not that thats a bad thing.Just think they should have kept the original tail.

Oh,and the CH-53K,I love it! Glad to see they were able to have the Super Stallion flying into the next century.Now if only the Army would buy a few......

[GTX]

Another one to add to the list is the S-70A Battle Hawk that was proposed to Australia for their AIR87 requirement (Won by the Eurocopter Tiger). This would've been similar to the S-70A-9 the Army currently has, with the notable exception of a turreted 20mm cannon mounted under the nose.

As per this:



Regards,

Greg

[MCS]

Had a chance to get some info on color schemes:

Venezuela: 3-tone camo: FS34082, FS34096, FS30219

Jordan: 3-tone camo: FS30140, FS34097, FS30400

Couple of more to add:

Came across something that indicated Sweden might have been considering the S-70A at one point.

Just read in AW&ST recently that there's talk of the Indian Navy buying Seahawks and saw on the 'net that the Thailand Navy may be purchasing some MH-60S'.

[MCS]

I liked the S-92 before they redesigned the tail,when it looked more like the CH-53's inverted gull wing type.I'm not sure why they changed it to the EH-101 under rotor type.I always thought the S-92 looked like a modern S-61R Jolly Green,not that thats a bad thing.Just think they should have kept the original tail.

Oh,and the CH-53K,I love it! Glad to see they were able to have the Super Stallion flying into the next century.Now if only the Army would buy a few......

The tail went through a number of revisions to resolve pitch stability and CG issues.

There was some faint talk in Aviation Week about a -53K joint venture with some partners in Europe, but, I doubt that will go anywhere.  

[Iranian F-14A]

Had a chance to get some info on color schemes:

Venezuela: 3-tone camo: FS34082, FS34096, FS30219

Jordan: 3-tone camo: FS30140, FS34097, FS30400

Couple of more to add:

Came across something that indicated Sweden might have been considering the S-70A at one point.

Just read in AW&ST recently that there's talk of the Indian Navy buying Seahawks and saw on the 'net that the Thailand Navy may be purchasing some MH-60S'.

Have any pics,profiles or drawings of these or other models?