The Austrian Armed Forces received the third retrofitted S-70 "Black Hawk" transport helicopter from Defense Minister Klaudia Tanner (ÖVP) at the Brumowski air base on Tuesday.

“I am pleased that we have been able to give new impetus to this necessary modernization of our 'Black Hawk' helicopters. In the meantime, three 'Black Hawk' have been converted and are available in Austria. Two more were shipped to the USA after the contract had been adjusted, where the series conversion will be carried out by the contractor. The remaining four are modified in Fliegerwerft 1 here in Austria. With the purchase of three more 'Black Hawks', we should then have all twelve available in Austria in 2025, using the latest technology," said the member of the government.

On June 1, 2017, the contract was signed with the company "ACE Aeronautics" from the USA, whose offer, beyond the replacement of individual technical components with limited usability, provided for a completely new cockpit and still emerged as the best bidder from the competition.

With this modification, the entire system is replaced instead of individual avionics systems, i.e. the entire cockpit. Systems were also replaced that would only have to be renewed in the coming years. This means that no further upgrade is necessary over a long period of time. As a result of this measure, it can be expected that supply and the selective replacement of components will be associated with significantly less technical and thus financial effort in the future.

The new system is based on the integrated G5000H Cockpit from Garmin, with which all requirements for the use of airspace according to visual flight and instrument flight rules, in particular GPS-supported approach procedures, now and in the future, are met. Thanks to the innovative avionics architecture, the integration of radio devices, sensors or other systems is possible as part of the conversion, but also for future needs.

With the purchase of the 18 Leonardo AW169 and the availability of the first helicopter in 2022, the performance of the Austrian helicopter fleet will be raised to a new level.