L-3 to Support 123 TH-57 Sea Ranger Helicopters
L-3 Communications Vertex Aerospace LLC in Madison, MS received a $36.2 million firm-fixed-price, cost-reimbursable, indefinite-delivery requirements contract to provide additional logistics support for approximately 121 TH-57B/TH-57C Sea Ranger helicopters based at the Naval Air Station (NAS) Whiting Field, FL, and two TH-57C aircraft based at the NAS Patuxent River, MD.
The TH-57 is more commonly known as…
…the Bell 206 Jet Ranger, which was originally designed to meet the needs of the US Army’s 1962 Light Observation Helicopter competition as the YOH-4. It was defeated by the Hughes OH-6 Cayuse, but would later be adopted by the US Navy as the TH-57 Sea Ranger and used for pilot training.
Meanwhile, its civilian version the Bell 206 Jet Ranger went on to become one of the most commercially successful helicopters of all time.
In 1968, the Bell 206A was selected as the “LOH 2nd Edition” winner and entered the US Army inventory as the OH-58A Kiowa. The Italian helicopter maker Augusta produces a Bell 206 variant (the AB206), and the Bell Helicopter Textron 407 model which recently won the USA’s $2.2 billion Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter competition is also a (significantly upgraded) Jet Ranger derivative.
Work on this contract will be performed in Whiting Field, FL (99%) and Patuxent River, MD (1%), and is expected to be completed in September 2006. The Naval Air Systems Command in Patuxent River, MD issued the contract (N00019-05-D-0023).
