A federal budget agreement announced on Monday night includes money for the Air Force to award a contract to the Sikorsky Aircraft/Lockheed Martin joint venture.
The contract would call for the companies to build a new generation of 112 combat search-and-rescue helicopters. The agreement includes over $333 million for the Air Force to approve the project, which would support 250 existing and new jobs at Lockheed’s Owego facility. The Air Force had announced last year that it would be awarding the contract, which has a $5.5 billion long-term value, to the partnership of the two companies. Before the project could officially be approved, the government had to end across-the-board sequestration budget cuts to the defense budget. Now that the money has been included in the defense budget, Lockheed’s Owego site will likely be assigned to handle the new fleet’s modernized mission systems and other special equipment. Lockheed in Owego already does the systems integration for Sikorsky’s H-60 Seahawk helicopter used by the Navy.
