Navy awards Sikorsky $107.4 million contract modification for CH-53K Lot 4

The Navy yesterday announced a $107.4 million contract modification to Sikorsky for the Marine Corps' new heavy-lift helicopter.

According to the announcement, Sikorsky will begin purchasing long-lead materials in preparation for six CH-53K King Stallion aircraft as part of Lot 4 of the program's low-rate initial production phase.

The Navy expects Lockheed-owned Sikorsky to finish the work by August 2020.

In May, the Navy awarded Sikorsky a $1.1 billion contract modification for Lot 2 and Lot 3 of the program's LRIP phase.

Inside Defense previously reported that the Marine Corps is still eying the 2023 deployment objective for the CH-53K, despite facing program delays due to technical issues with the aircraft.

Congressional defense committees recently approved the second half of a $158 million reprogramming request for the Marine Corps to conduct additional flight testing of the new helicopter.