Lithuania receives first UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters to replace Mi-8 fleet under $213M U.S. deal
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Lithuania has received its first UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters from a U.S.-backed 2020 purchase, marking the start of a new era in the country’s rotary aviation. The delivery strengthens NATO’s eastern flank and aligns Lithuania’s airlift and medevac capabilities with allied standards.
The Lithuanian Armed Forces announced on October 19, 2025, that the country has received its first UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters, unveiled in a post on social media showing the aircraft with the national tricolor and the Cross of Vytis. The debut confirms the first two airframes from a 2020 purchase of four, a deal valued at roughly 213 million dollars and aimed at replacing Soviet-era Mi-8s with a NATO-standard utility platform that can be armed with 7.62 mm door guns and, if fitted with external stores, precision munitions. Independent reporting and imagery from specialized outlets corroborate the arrival timeline and fleet size.Follow Army Recognition on Google News at this link
Lithuania’s newly delivered UH-60M Black Hawks feature advanced digital cockpits, powerful T700-GE-701D engines, and enhanced survivability suites, offering superior lift, speed, and mission flexibility for troop transport, medevac, and air assault across the Baltic region (Picture source: Lithuanian Armed Forces).
The UH-60M is a generational jump for Lithuania’s rotary fleet. The M-model pairs two GE T700-GE-701D turboshafts with wide-chord composite main rotor blades, a combination that improves lift, hot-and-high margins, and reliability while reducing maintenance hours. The cockpit is fully digital with multi-function displays, a moving map, embedded GPS/INS, and a coupled flight control system that stabilizes the airframe in turbulence and during hoist or sling operations. An integrated vehicle health monitoring architecture gives crews and maintainers the data they have long lacked on legacy platforms.
A typical cruise is about 151 knots with a mission radius of 270 to 320 nautical miles depending on load, while the airframe carries an 11-troop stick or external loads up to roughly 9,000 pounds. Survivability kits commonly fielded on M-models include the AN/AAR-57 Common Missile Warning System, the AN/AVR-2B laser warning receiver, and an upturned exhaust to cut IR signature. Door armament usually consists of M240H 7.62 mm machine guns, with provisions for M134 miniguns; the External Stores Support System can add rocket or missile stations when required by mission.
Black Hawks will move infantry squads, special operations teams, and anti-armor detachments across short Baltic distances, sling artillery or barrier material into the Suwałki corridor, and fly medevac and search-and-rescue in winter conditions that punish older airframes. Secure, NATO-standard radios and navigation, coupled with the digital cockpit, compress planning timelines for air assault and joint fires. The platform’s handling qualities at low level and in degraded visual environments, paired with the missile warning and flare suite, raise survivability for crews that must operate inside the envelope of short-range air defenses and loitering munitions now commonplace along the alliance’s northeastern flank.
Vilnius has raised defense spending to at least 3 percent of GDP from 2025, prioritizing air defense, artillery, and mobility enablers, and is preparing to host a permanently stationed German brigade that should reach full readiness in 2027. In a region bracketed by Kaliningrad and Belarus, with the Suwałki gap as the alliance’s soft point, the UH-60M gives commanders a connective tissue for NATO’s forward posture, from rapid casualty evacuation during multinational exercises to real-world crisis response. Training links with the Pennsylvania National Guard, already active on the UH-60M, will accelerate conversion and embed U.S. TTPs into Lithuanian crews.
Lithuania’s first Black Hawks are a mobility guarantee and a deterrent signal, interoperable on day one, built for the tempo that a frontline NATO state now faces. As the remaining two aircraft arrive and crews rack up hours, the Black Hawk is expected to become the center of Lithuania’s joint response, stitching together land brigades, air defense batteries, and Allied reinforcements across the Baltic theater.
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Lithuania has received its first UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters from a U.S.-backed 2020 purchase, marking the start of a new era in the country’s rotary aviation. The delivery strengthens NATO’s eastern flank and aligns Lithuania’s airlift and medevac capabilities with allied standards.
The Lithuanian Armed Forces announced on October 19, 2025, that the country has received its first UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters, unveiled in a post on social media showing the aircraft with the national tricolor and the Cross of Vytis. The debut confirms the first two airframes from a 2020 purchase of four, a deal valued at roughly 213 million dollars and aimed at replacing Soviet-era Mi-8s with a NATO-standard utility platform that can be armed with 7.62 mm door guns and, if fitted with external stores, precision munitions. Independent reporting and imagery from specialized outlets corroborate the arrival timeline and fleet size.
Follow Army Recognition on Google News at this link
Lithuania’s newly delivered UH-60M Black Hawks feature advanced digital cockpits, powerful T700-GE-701D engines, and enhanced survivability suites, offering superior lift, speed, and mission flexibility for troop transport, medevac, and air assault across the Baltic region (Picture source: Lithuanian Armed Forces).
The UH-60M is a generational jump for Lithuania’s rotary fleet. The M-model pairs two GE T700-GE-701D turboshafts with wide-chord composite main rotor blades, a combination that improves lift, hot-and-high margins, and reliability while reducing maintenance hours. The cockpit is fully digital with multi-function displays, a moving map, embedded GPS/INS, and a coupled flight control system that stabilizes the airframe in turbulence and during hoist or sling operations. An integrated vehicle health monitoring architecture gives crews and maintainers the data they have long lacked on legacy platforms.
A typical cruise is about 151 knots with a mission radius of 270 to 320 nautical miles depending on load, while the airframe carries an 11-troop stick or external loads up to roughly 9,000 pounds. Survivability kits commonly fielded on M-models include the AN/AAR-57 Common Missile Warning System, the AN/AVR-2B laser warning receiver, and an upturned exhaust to cut IR signature. Door armament usually consists of M240H 7.62 mm machine guns, with provisions for M134 miniguns; the External Stores Support System can add rocket or missile stations when required by mission.
Black Hawks will move infantry squads, special operations teams, and anti-armor detachments across short Baltic distances, sling artillery or barrier material into the Suwałki corridor, and fly medevac and search-and-rescue in winter conditions that punish older airframes. Secure, NATO-standard radios and navigation, coupled with the digital cockpit, compress planning timelines for air assault and joint fires. The platform’s handling qualities at low level and in degraded visual environments, paired with the missile warning and flare suite, raise survivability for crews that must operate inside the envelope of short-range air defenses and loitering munitions now commonplace along the alliance’s northeastern flank.
Vilnius has raised defense spending to at least 3 percent of GDP from 2025, prioritizing air defense, artillery, and mobility enablers, and is preparing to host a permanently stationed German brigade that should reach full readiness in 2027. In a region bracketed by Kaliningrad and Belarus, with the Suwałki gap as the alliance’s soft point, the UH-60M gives commanders a connective tissue for NATO’s forward posture, from rapid casualty evacuation during multinational exercises to real-world crisis response. Training links with the Pennsylvania National Guard, already active on the UH-60M, will accelerate conversion and embed U.S. TTPs into Lithuanian crews.
Lithuania’s first Black Hawks are a mobility guarantee and a deterrent signal, interoperable on day one, built for the tempo that a frontline NATO state now faces. As the remaining two aircraft arrive and crews rack up hours, the Black Hawk is expected to become the center of Lithuania’s joint response, stitching together land brigades, air defense batteries, and Allied reinforcements across the Baltic theater.
