Program overview The UH-72A Lakota Specifications Video Milestones Walkaround

Program overview

The EADS North America UH-72A Lakota is the U.S. Army’s new multi-role Light Utility Helicopter. 

This twin-engine aircraft serves as a key element in the military service’s modernization of its aviation assets – providing a highly capable helicopter for missions that include homeland security, drug interdiction, general support, logistics and medical evacuation (MEDEVAC).  

Additionally, the UH-72A’s introduction with U.S. Army and National Guard units throughout the United States is freeing up other rotary-wing assets for deployment to Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

EADS North America won the Light Utility Helicopter contract on June 30, 2006, and it officially delivered the U.S. Army’s first UH-72A on December 11 of the same year – three months ahead of schedule.  The first operational U.S. Army unit was equipped within 11 months of the Lakota contract award, making this one of the most rapid introductions of a new aircraft in the service’s history.  

The U.S. Army currently has 128 UH-72As on order, and expects to acquire a total of 345 Lakotas through 2016 – representing a potential life-cycle value of more than $2 billion.   Another five have been ordered by the U.S. Navy for pilot training.

As of March 2009, nearly 60 Lakotas have been delivered to the U.S. Army on, or ahead of, schedule by EADS North America, with these aircraft based at locations that include Fort Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania; Fort Eustis and Fort Belvoir, Virginia; Fort Polk and Pineville, Louisiana; Fort Irwin, California; Jacksonville, Florida; Morrisville, North Carolina; Tupelo, Mississippi; and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York.
 
EADS North America is in-sourcing the UH-72A’s production to the United States, creating jobs and bringing high-value business activity to a new helicopter center of excellence at Columbus, Mississippi.  Lakota production is handled by American Eurocopter, an EADS North America business unit, which is a leading supplier of helicopters in the U.S. market. 

The UH-72A’s production rate averages three to four helicopters per month – with the capability of reaching five aircraft monthly at the Lakota’s 220,000-sq.-ft. production center adjacent to the Golden Triangle Regional Airport.