U.S. Air Force Plans HH-60W Modifications for Washington VIP Transport and Continuity Missions

U.S. Air Force will modify a subset of its HH-60W Jolly Green II combat search and rescue helicopters to perform missions for the Air Force District of Washington, including ferrying VIPs around the nation's capital and supporting continuity of government plans. , proper.

These modified HH-60Ws will be based at Joint Base Andrews, formerly known as Andrews Air Force Base, where the Air Force currently uses a fleet of UH-1N Twin Huey helicopters for similar tasks. The Air Force initially planned to replace the UH-1Ns with MH-139A Grey Wolf helicopters for these missions, but revealed last year it was considering HH-60Ws instead.

The service is still procuring and fielding MH-139s primarily to provide security around Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile silos.

The Air Force's proposed budget for the 2027 fiscal year, rolled out earlier this week, confirms the shift to using HH-60Ws to supplant the UH-1Ns at Andrews. The baseline HH-60W is part of the extended H-60/S-70 Black Hawk family produced by Sikorsky, now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin.

It features a nose-mounted radar, an in-flight refueling probe, and a main cabin optimized for personnel recovery, including for injured individuals.

The helicopter also includes provisions for mounted machine guns for self-defense, as well as launchers for decoy flares and chaff. The first HH-60Ws entered Air Force service in 2022. Modifications for the Air Force District of Washington role include possible removal of components such as the Rescue Team Seat, Isolated Personnel Litter, Gun System, Chaff/Flare Buckets, and Doors/Floor Armor.

Additional changes may involve installing ARC 210 Gen 6 radios, an Infrared Countermeasure system, and an alternate seating arrangement. Earlier this month, the Air Force issued a contracting notice seeking information on integrating the Common Infrared Countermeasure system or the AN/AAQ-45 Distributed Aperture Infrared Countermeasure system onto the HH-60W fleet.

U.S. Army and is being installed on UH-60 Black Hawks and other helicopter types. Northrop Grumman is the prime contractor for this system. U.S. Navy, with integrations on MH-60S Seahawks and VH-60Ns, the latter serving in the Marine One presidential airlift role.

The AN/AAQ-45 system was previously integrated into the Air Force's HH-60G Pave Hawks. A separate Air Force contracting notice from earlier this month states that the service will remove several components from the baseline HH-60W to install passenger seats for the Air Force District of Washington mission, with seating required for 11 passengers.

" The reconfiguration of the HH-60W interior layout will preserve critical combat search and rescue equipment, including the rescue hoist, defensive weapons, and medical stations.

The HH-60W offers advantages in speed, range, and payload capacity over both the UH-1Ns currently performing these missions and the MH-139s. The Air Force has not indicated plans to eliminate the HH-60W's aerial refueling capability as part of the modifications. Neither the UH-1N nor the MH-139 is capable of in-flight refueling.

HH-60Ws recently participated in efforts to rescue the crew of an F-15E Strike Eagle shot down in Iran. In January 2025, an Army UH-60 Black Hawk assigned to a unit at Davison Army Airfield in Virginia was involved in a fatal mid-air collision with a PSA Airlines Bombardier CRJ700 regional jet while conducting a continuity of government training flight.

The Air Force's 2027 fiscal year budget request shows no plans to procure additional HH-60Ws.

The service originally planned for 113 HH-60Ws but scaled back purchases, with the total planned fleet size now at 91, according to the budget documents. "It is more cost effective to modify previously procured HH-60Ws than to procure additional MH-139A aircraft," an Air Force spokesperson told Air & Space Forces Magazine last year.

The Air Force plans to begin formal development of the Air Force District of Washington configuration for the HH-60W in fiscal year 2027, which starts on October 1 of this year.

Refitting of the helicopters for this role is set to start in the 2028 fiscal year. Once modified, the HH-60Ws will take over the missions from the UH-1Ns at Andrews.