Sikorsky Australia is marking 10 years of its purpose-built sustainment and logistics facility at Nowra, which has become a key hub for maintaining the Royal Australian Navy’s MH-60R Seahawk fleet.
The facility now employs more than 230 people, including 17 apprentices, and is supported by 99 regional suppliers. It provides maintenance, repair and overhaul, logistics, training, warehousing, supply and engineering services for the Seahawks, along with specialised component repair.
Sikorsky Australia General Manager Cliff Kyle said, "The operation started with fewer than a dozen employees, who designed the facility and built its capability from the ground up. Today, we employ more than 230 highly skilled people."
Since opening, the team has completed 70 planned maintenance interval depot-level servicings on Navy Seahawks, including the first in-country depot maintenance on a US Navy Seahawk. The Australian fleet has now flown more than 60,000 hours.
More than 100 Seahawk components are now supported at Nowra. Most recently, Sikorsky established a main rotor damper overhaul capability in response to an emerging fleet requirement, so the components no longer need to go back to the US.
The facility can also maintain the Seahawk’s low-frequency dipping sonar, the aircraft’s primary anti-submarine warfare sensor. Nowra is one of only four locations in the world with that capability, alongside two in the US and one in Japan.
The facility sits alongside the Navy’s Fleet Air Arm Seahawk squadrons, allowing operational and sustainment teams to work closely together.
“The facility was designed around our needs from the outset, starting as a bare-bones operation, but future-proofed for what was ahead. Ten years on, we’re still reaping the benefits of that design as the fleet continues to expand,” Kyle said.
With the Navy’s Seahawk fleet growing to 36 aircraft, Sikorsky expects to expand its local supply chain and workforce over the next decade.
Australian Flying will feature an inside look at the Nowra facility in the January/February 2027 issue.