SIKORSKY TO MOVE ITS MANUFACTURING LINE TO TURKEY

[atatwolf]

ISTANBUL — As Turkish media outlets reported on Friday, Anand Stanley, the vice president responsible for the Middle East, Turkey and Africa of the U.S.-based aircraft manufacturer Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation, said they can make Turkey their office production center to export to the Middle East and Africa in early September. Sikorsky Aircraft, which signed a contract worth $3.5 billion (TL 7.9 billion) with Turkish state-run and private companies to produce general purpose helicopters in Feburary 2014, is now gearing up to export helicopters produced in Turkey to the Middle East and Africa. Speaking to Reuters news agency during the Istanbul Air Show, Stanley said that their Turkey office would be the production center for all regional countries from Pakistan to Africa. According to Stanley, Sikorsky Aircraft's Turkey office will be responsible for exporting to these countries as well as directing customer relations. Stanley stated that the cost of projects, which will also be used by Turkey, is $8 billion. He stressed that they would like to be a part of Turkey's growth story.
http://www.dailysabah.com/money/2014/09/27/sikorsky-to-move-its-manufacturing-line-to-turkey

 

[Neptune]

Aside our own, producing cutting edge Sikorsky choppeds to oil rich countries means $$$

 

[atatwolf]

Aside our own, producing cutting edge Sikorsky choppeds to oil rich countries means $$$

I hope we can get tech transfer

 

[T-123456]

Engines!!!

 

[Kompromat]

Good development for Turkey. Don't let them eat up TAI though.

 

[Oublious]

they saw how good our manufacturing technique and modernize electronics. So they come with this.

 

[ozi2000]

Sikorsky: Local Content will be Closer to %80 End of the TUHP
Mr. Jason W. Lambert Program Director of Turkish Utility Helicopter Program, Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation assessed Turkish Utilty Helicopter Programme’s current situation, local contribution in TUHP, delivery schedule and export activities in details for Defence Turkey Readers.

Defence Turkey: The Sikorsky S-70i programme, model helicopter, is to be produced in Turkey under a licence as a production model . Could you please inform us about the production model? How it will be processed and what are the details of the model?

It’s licenced production that we have with TUHP prime contractor, TAI; we signed our agreement with TAI to produce a baseline quantity, of 109 T70 aircraft, which is the Turkish Utility Helicopter, for procurement by SSM that will be utilised by six end users. The 109 aircraft will be produced in two configurations; 89 aircraft in common utility configuration and 20 aircraft in a forestry firefighting configuration. Additionally, the licence enables TAI to manufacture optional aircraft which could take total count of T70s up to 300, representing the base line of 109 with options for 191. Under the licence, TAI is procuring a set of Sikorsky intellectual property, which includes engineering data, to enable the production of the T70 aircraft. The production will start with TAI performing final assembly and flight tests of the helicopter with Sikorsky starting out providing TAI a kit of all the parts required to produce the Black Hawks. Over time as TAI’s capabilities increase, through support which Sikorsky will be providing, TAI will increase their manufacturing content and Sikorsky will decrease the content provided in the parts kit. For example, In the first five T-70 aircraft, Sikorsky will provide the cabin and the cockpit portion of the fuselage. However, by the sixth aircraft, TAI will manufacture their own cabin and cockpit. Over time, TAI’s work share increases as they grow in capability and Sikorsky’s work share decreases. That model follows through many components of the helicopter.

Mr. Jason W. Lambert Program Director of Turkish Utility Helicopter Program, Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation


Defence Turkey: Could you please inform us about Aselsan’s responsibility of TUHP?

Aselsan a has very large statement of work on TUHP as they are partnering with Sikorsky to develop a new digital cockpit for the Turkish Utility Helicopter. Planning and initial development is already under way. This new cockpit will create the avionics functionality for the Turkish Utility Helicopter for both T70 as well as for the international Black Hawk, the S-70i, that Sikorsky will be procuring back from Turkish industry for export sale internationally. This cockpit has several enhancements over the current glass cockpit that’s utilized, including larger displays. It leverages functionality from the T129 Atak that was produced by Aselsan and TAI and then being structured in a manner to have a reduced pilot workload, which means that the functionality that we’re designing into this product will make it easier to use and enable the pilots to provide more focus on their mission.


Defence Turkey: What is the maximum local contribution in this programme; I know that you will work with other Turkish companies as well and for the time being what is the rate of the local contribution?

Once we develop the initial cockpit, Aselsan will be providing the cockpit avionic systems for all the T-70s, additionally, in terms of local content, TAI will of course be doing the final assembly and flight tests from their the facility in Ankara on all the T70s, they’ll also be manufacturing the airframe or fuselage components for 104 of the 109 aircraft. They’ll be providing the avionic and electrical components for 104 of 109 aircraft, once capabilities are developed, TAI will be manufacturing rotor blades for 60 of the 109 aircraft., In summary, there will be a very large quantity content at TAI and Aselsan. Additionally, from a local perspective, Sikorsky is making a significant investment in our joint venture, Alp Aviation in Eskişehir. Alp is a joint venture that Sikorsky has with the Alpata Group established back in 1998. The Alp organization will be manufacturing flight controls, precision machine components, gears, which are a new compentency for Alp, additionally they’ll also be manufacturing transmission housings, which is also a new competency for Alp. The concept is a benefit for Turkish industry. While Sikorsky starts off with providing a kit with parts for TAI to assemble, over time Sikorsky’s content is greatly reduced while Turkish industry’s content is increased and as the industry’s capabilities grow.

Defence Turkey: What is the total Turkish contribution rate in the programme? Can we say fifty-fifty or more?

I would say by end of the program, it will be drastically more, probably closer to 80% or more.

Defence Turkey: 80% at the end you say, what is the rate right now?

To start the programme, the content will be final assembly and flight testplus the , plus the empennage portion of the airframe that TAI manufactures today for Sikorsky with the addition of the Aselsan cockpit. Using rough percentages, I would say the content will start at 20% Turkish and finish at over 80% Turkish. And again it’s a rough estimate, but the transition of content is very substantial under this program.

Defence Turkey: Within the coverage of the programme you gave a commitment in the contract proposal that every T70 helicopter to be produced in Turkey and one helicopter would be exported overseas. So how many helicopter purchases does this commitment cover and what is the size and the scope of this project at the end?

The level of industrialization was a critical factor in the establishment of TUHP. I view the industrialization in two pieces. The first is what we talked about for the T70 and its Sikorsky providing licenced data and the support to enable Turkish industry to produce an indigenous Black Hawk for their own use, for the six end users. The second portion of the industrialization comes from the buyback agreement we have with SSM. One of the components of that agreement includes Sikorsky procuring the final assembly and test service from TAI of an S-70i international Black Hawk for every T70 that is produced by TAI for SSM. What that means is the total production volume from TAI’s production line will be minimum of 218 helicopters, that will be 109 T70s for use in Turkey and 109 S-70i for export, that could go up to a maximum of 600 total helicopters with the options, which could be 300 T70s for use in Turkey and 300 S-70i’s for export. Regarding the export helicopters , the sale of the final product to the end user country will all be subject to US Government export approvals. The countries that we are delivering those aircraft to are countries that we are going to jointly market along with TAI. We see this from Sikorsky’s perspective as having access to new markets internationally, where Sikorsky is the leader of Black Hawk production, to partner with TAI, a leading world-class aerospace company and also work with the government of Turkey and the government of the United States and their relationships with the worldwide community.

S70i-Production Line

Defence Turkey: What can you say about the delivery programme schedule?

The delivery calendar starts in a couple pieces. The first point of note is the delivery schedule is subject to the final approval of US state department export licences, and we’re currently in the process, working with our Turkish counterparts and the US State Department, on the submission of the licences for review by the US government and the approval per the US Congress. Pending the schedule for the export licence approval, our delivery schedule is as follows: We will begin delivery of technical data under our licence agreement, to TAI at the end of 2015, we will provide kits of material, production parts that would go into the assembly of the helicopters, that would start in 2017 and run through 2024. TAI’s final assembly is scheduled to begin at 2017 with the first aircraft being certified and qualified for delivery to the Turkish Government in the early portion of 2020. The final delivery of baseline T70 is scheduled for 2025. One other major milestone we have as part of our program is regarding the Aselsan cockpit development, and currently, as I mentioned, we’re in the development cycle with Aselsan to develop this new system with input from the Turkish government pilots and we’re scheduled to deliver an international Black Hawk with an Aselsan cockpit, qualified by Sikorsky, in 2018. That will become the prototype aircraft for the Turkish Utility Helicopter Programme. So there’s two phases of the start up work, one is the development of our new cockpit to be integrated into the Black Hawk and in parallel to that, we will provide parts to TAI and work with TAI to help establish their final assembly line.

Defence Turkey: And I wonder, is there any possibility, in the coming years, that Sikorsky will move its S-70i production line from the United States to Turkey?

Actually, the S-70i production line today is not in the US. In the US we manufacture the Black Hawk derivatives for the US government and for foreign governments, under our foreign military sale programme.The current S-70i Black Hawk production line is in Mielec, Poland. Under TUHP, TAI will start the second S-70i assembly line for the aircraft that we will be purchasing back for export.Under TUHP, TAI will have two final assembly lines, one for T70s and second one for the S-70i.

Defence Turkey: What is the difference between the T70 and the S70i platform?

Once the cockpit is integrated in the aircraft, there will be little to no difference. The difference today is that the S-70i that Sikorsky manufactures currently contains the cockpit avionicssystem produced by Rockwell Collins. In the future, the S-70i and the T70 produced at TAI will contain the Aselsan avionics cockpit.

Defence Turkey: As a platform nothing changed except the avionics systems and the other electronic equipment.

Correct, the primary change is the avionics equipment, that will be the new system that we are developing with Aselsan and additional Aselsan systems such as the navigation, active vibration control and communication systems that Sikorsky will be integrating on the T70 The configurations of the S70i and the T70 will be near identical.
Defence Turkey: Thank you very much.

Defence Turkey