During the recent Air & Space Forces Association’s (AFA’s) 2025 Warfare Symposium, Lockheed Martin’s Sikorsky offered a Subject Matter Expert or SME in David "Rum" Morgan to discuss the ongoing deployment of the United States Air Force ’s newest rescue helicopter in the Sikorsky HH-60W Jolly Green II. Based on the UH-60M Blackhawk As Morgan shared with Simple Flying, the HH-60W Jolly Green II is based on the Sikorsky UH-60M Blackhawk model with a glass cockpit. One can watch a Lockheed Martin introduction YouTube below: The UH-60M Blackhawk is the latest base variant of the H-60 Blackhawk family, which is already 50+ years strong .
The Black Hawk's rotors are designed to withstand extreme conditions, including medics & direct arms fires, making it a powerful lifeline in combat. See, the UH-60M subfamily does comes with the same reliable H-60 design but with the following improvements: Modern glass cockpit Open systems architecture to allow plug-and-play equipment Composite wide-chord rotor blades with more survivability and lift Carry 4,080 kg/9,000 lbs. of supplies as an internal or external load.
Carry up to 12 personnel Improved wide chord, all-composite rotor blades which generate additional 470 pounds of lift Exhaust pointed up to reduce heat signature to protect against infra-red missiles and have cooler landing zones. All that capability has been baseline for the HH-60W Jolly Green II, and then new composite armor has been added as well as improved countermeasu.
