New Zealand to purchase five MH-60R Seahawk helicopters following $1.5 billion US approval.

The U.S. State Department has officially approved a potential $1.5 billion Foreign Military Sale to New Zealand for five MH-60R Seahawk Multi-Mission Helicopters and related equipment. This procurement serves to replace the Royal New Zealand Navy’s aging SH-2G(I) Seasprite maritime fleet, expanding technical capabilities across anti-submarine warfare, maritime surveillance, and surface-target strike missions. The acquisition directly aligns with Wellington’s modern defense modernization strategy to significantly scale military expenditure over the next eight years amid shifting geopolitical dynamics in the Indo-Pacific region.

The comprehensive $1.5 billion procurement package provides five MH-60R Seahawks fully equipped with Airborne Low Frequency Sonar, digital Magnetic Anomaly Detection systems, and AN/AAS-44C(V) multi-spectral targeting suites. Averaging $300 million per airframe on a full-package sustainment basis, the approved contract integrates precision guided weapons including AGM-114R Hellfire missiles, secure Link 16 tactical data links, and multi-year contractor engineering support.

Related topic: New Zealand confirms replacement of entire fleet of SH-2G Super Seasprite maritime helicopters

The MH-60R Seahawk is an American multi-mission naval helicopter designed for anti-submarine warfare, surface strike, and maritime surveillance. (Picture source: US Navy)

On June 5, 2026, the U.S. State Department approved a possible $1.5 billion Foreign Military Sale to New Zealand for five MH-60R Seahawk multi-mission helicopters, allowing Wellington to move toward replacing the Royal New Zealand Navy’s SH-2G(I) Seasprite maritime helicopter fleet with a shipborne force built around ASW, ASuW, maritime surveillance, tactical networking, and precision strike. The sale combines helicopters, sensors, weapons, navigation systems, Link 16 terminals, Hawklink ship-helicopter data links, radios, IFF equipment, training devices, spare engines, support items, spare and repair parts, logistics services, publications, and technical support.

At $1.5 billion, the acquisition equals $300 million per airframe on a full-package basis, as the MH-60R adds more combat functions than the Seasprite. The five-helicopter fleet aims to generate enough available MH-60Rs for New Zealand's embarked frigate operations, training, maintenance rotation, and contingency demand at the same time. The structure of the sale shows a compact force designed to give every helicopter a full primary mission fit: New Zealand would receive five MH-60Rs, five Airborne Low Frequency Sonar systems, five digital Magnetic Anomaly Detection systems, five AN/AAS-44C(V) multi-spectral targeting systems, and five M240D 7.62 mm machine guns, which indicates one principal ASW, targeting, and gun package per airframe.

The data-link and navigation quantities are slightly deeper: seven Link 16 MIDS-JTRS terminals provide five installed systems and two spares, while 14 embedded GPS/PPS/INS systems with SAASM provide ten installed systems and four spares, meaning two protected navigation units per helicopter with a 40 percent spare margin. The five-aircraft scale can support a deployed detachment model, a training pipeline, and scheduled maintenance, but it leaves little slack. If one aircraft is unavailable, 20 percent of the fleet is out of use; if two aircraft are in deeper maintenance or awaiting parts, 40 percent of the fleet is unavailable before operational tasking begins.

Lockheed Martin Rotary and Mission Systems in Owego, New York, is the principal contractor, and the sale aligns New Zealand’s future naval helicopter force more closely with U.S. and allied maritime aviation systems in the Asia-Pacific region. The MH-60R Seahawk gives New Zealand a larger and more missionized shipborne helicopter than the SH-2G(I), as it possesses the size, power, and internal systems needed to carry ASW sensors, surface-search radar, EO/IR targeting, ESM equipment, crew-served weapons, sonobuoys, and external precision weapons. The Seahawk itself has a maximum takeoff weight of 23,500 lb (10,659 kg), an empty weight of 15,170 lb (6,881 kg), and a payload capacity of nearly 9,000 lb (4,082 kg), depending on fuel, crew, sensors, weapons, and sonobuoy load.

Its maximum cruise speed is 144 knots (267 km/h), with an operational range of 245 nautical miles or 454 km, while New Zealand project material also uses a 963 km range figure in the broader replacement context. The helicopter measures 64 ft 10 in (19.76 m) in length and has a tail height of 16 ft 9 in (5.1 m), dimensions that matter for hangar clearance, ship compatibility, deck handling, and maintenance spaces. For a frigate, the operational effect is concrete: the ship gains a modern helicopter able to search beyond the ship’s radar horizon, dip sonar away from the hull sonar’s acoustic position, lay sonobuoy patterns in another part of the battlespace, classify surface contacts with radar and EO/IR, and pass sensor information back to the combat team while remaining able to engage selected targets.

The propulsion package is central to availability because the aircraft count is small, and maritime helicopter operations place continuous stress on engines and supporting equipment. The T700-GE-401D turboshaft engines included in the package belong to a family producing 1,700 to 2,000 shaft horsepower per engine, depending on variant and rating. With two engines per MH-60R, each helicopter has over-water redundancy and a combined power class exceeding 3,400 shaft horsepower under high-power operating conditions. That power margin supports shipborne launch and recovery with mission loads, as the operating environment imposes corrosion, salt-spray exposure, deck-motion recovery demands, high humidity, repeated engine cycling, and long transits over water.

Spare engine containers, therefore, are included because engines must be moved and stored without shock, corrosion, or contamination damage, especially for a fleet operating far from U.S. production and depot nodes. In this case, propulsion sustainment is not a background issue. A single engine supply problem can hold one Seahawk on the ground, and in a five-helicopter force, that immediately affects the number of units available for a frigate detachment, training sorties, or contingency response. The undersea warfare (ASW) package is the main change in military function because it gives each aircraft multiple ways to search for, localize, and support action against submarines.

Five Airborne Low Frequency Sonar systems provide one dipping-sonar set per helicopter, allowing a Seahawk to hover, lower a sonar body into the water, search, recover it, move, and repeat the pattern at new points selected by the crew or the ship. The low-frequency element matters because lower-frequency acoustic energy can propagate over longer underwater distances than higher-frequency sonar, although the actual search result depends on temperature layers, salinity, water depth, bottom type, sea state, target speed, and target noise. Five digital Magnetic Anomaly Detection (MAD) systems add a passive localization method by sensing disturbances in the earth’s magnetic field caused by a submerged metallic object, a function most useful after sonar or sonobuoy work has narrowed the contact area.

The sonobuoy set provides the expendable acoustic layer: AN/SSQ-53 buoys are passive directional acoustic sensors for submarine-noise detection and bearing information, AN/SSQ-62 buoys are active command-activated sensors for range and bearing refinement, and AN/SSQ-36 bathythermograph buoys measure water-temperature profiles that affect sonar depth selection, sound-velocity conditions, and acoustic search planning. New Zealand’s frigates would no longer rely only on shipboard sonar geometry. The MH-60R Seahawk helicopter can search a separate datum, build a buoy field, test the water column, use dipping sonar at selected points, and employ MAD near the final localization phase, giving the ship an improved ASW reach.

The maritime strike package, for its part, gives New Zealand three practical levels of force from the same helicopter: guns, laser-guided 70 mm rockets, and Hellfire missiles. The sale includes 65 live AGM-114R Hellfire missiles, equivalent to 13 live Hellfires per helicopter, plus four M36E8 Hellfire Captive Air Training Missiles for carriage and procedural training. The AGM-114R weighs 108 lb (49 kg), measures 64 in (1.63 m), and has a range between 0.5 and 11 km, giving the MH-60R a heavier precision weapon for small combatants, fast attack craft, light vehicles, coastal targets, or other targets where a guided rocket would not provide enough effect.

Speaking of which, the package also includes 225 APKWS and 225 WGU-59A/B APKWS II guidance sections, equivalent to 45 guided rocket rounds per helicopter. A configured APKWS round weighs 32 lb (15 kg), measures 73.8 in (1.87 m), and has a rotary-wing employment range of 1.1 to 5 km. M299 guided missile launchers support Hellfire employment, and LAU-61 digital rocket launchers support 70 mm rocket firing. The mix is not just a weapons inventory; it creates a decision ladder. A crew can use guns for warning shots or close-range defense, APKWS against small boats or lightly protected targets when precision is needed but Hellfire is excessive, and Hellfire against harder or higher-value targets where range, warhead effect, or target resilience requires a heavier missile.

The cabin gun package fills a different operational space from Hellfire and APKWS because much of maritime security occurs below the threshold of missile use. Five M240D 7.62 mm guns give each Seahawk a lighter crew-served option for warning shots, boarding overwatch, self-defense, and low-collateral maritime security tasks. The M240D aircraft-gun configuration weighs 25.6 lb, measures 42.3 in, and fires at 650 to 950 rounds per minute, which gives the crew sustained fire at a lower escalation level than a rocket or missile. The GAU-21 crew-served guns add a heavier .50 caliber/12.7 mm option, with a rate of fire of 950 to 1,100 rounds per minute and a useful range reaching nearly 2,000 m in helicopter-mounted maritime use.

The difference between the two weapons is practical: the M240D is suited to warning, overwatch, and close defense, while the GAU-21 offers more range and effect against fast boats, exposed weapons, engines, small surface targets, or materiel. This matters for New Zealand because a naval helicopter may be used for boarding support, interdiction, fisheries enforcement support, counter-piracy, search-and-rescue security, and disaster-response missions, as well as wartime ASW and surface attack. The sensor package, for its part, helps the MH-60R to find, classify, and target surface contacts without forcing the parent frigate to provide every piece of the tactical picture.

The APS-153(V) multi-mode radar provides maritime surveillance and surface-contact tracking, weighs 186 lb (84.4 kg), and supports long-range search, short-range search, surface tracking, navigation, ISAR imaging, and periscope or small-target detection. Its track-while-scan capacity of up to 200 surface targets is relevant in crowded maritime areas where merchant ships, fishing vessels, patrol craft, small boats, and suspicious contacts may be inside the same radar picture. Radar gives the crew initial detection and track data, but identification and engagement support come from the AN/AAS-44C(V) multi-spectral targeting system, with thermal imaging, daylight imaging, laser rangefinding, and laser designation.

That sensor allows the helicopter to verify a radar contact visually or thermally, assess course and behavior, support evidence collection in maritime security missions, and provide laser energy for Hellfire or APKWS employment. The AN/ALQ-210 electronic support measures system adds a passive method of detecting and classifying radar or electronic emitters, allowing the Seahawk to gain information without immediately radiating with its own radar. The resulting sensor chain is concrete: APS-153(V) can detect and track, ALQ-210 can listen passively for emitters, AAS-44C(V) can identify and range, and the weapons suite can act if the rules of engagement and tactical conditions require it. The data-link, radio, navigation and IFF elements are what make the helicopter useful as part of a larger naval formation.

Seven Link 16 MIDS-JTRS terminals are included in the sale, with five installed and two spares, to give the MH-60R fleet access to a tactical network operating in the 960 to 1215 MHz UHF band using time-division multiple access. Link 16 allows the helicopter to exchange tactical tracks, position information and mission updates with ships, aircraft and command nodes, reducing dependence on voice reporting and improving the speed at which a contact detected by one unit can be used by another. The AN/ARQ-59 Hawklink provides the dedicated ship-helicopter channel for radar, acoustic, video and mission-data transfer, which is especially important for anti-submarine warfare (ASW) because the parent ship needs access to acoustic information and contact data from the helicopter’s sensors.

AN/ARC-210 RT-2036 radios with COMSEC give the MH-60R secure multi-band communications for air-to-ship, air-to-air and wider mission coordination. The 14 GPS/PPS/INS systems with SAASM, including ten installed and four spares, provide protected position, timing and inertial navigation, which affects sonobuoy placement, dipping-sonar coordinates, target handoff, Link 16 track quality and weapon employment. AN/APX-123 transponders and KIV-78 Mode 4/5 cryptographic appliqué support secure coalition identification, a necessary function when New Zealand Seahawks operate near allied ships, aircraft and command centers.

The practical result is that a helicopter contact can become a shared track, a ship can receive radar or acoustic data from outside its own sensor horizon, and allied units can identify the New Zealand MH-60Rs within a secure IFF framework. The final portion of the package determines whether New Zealand can sustain the capability after delivery. AN/AAR-47 missile warning systems give the crew incoming missile alerts, while AN/ALE-47 dispensers release chaff and flares to complicate radar-guided and infrared-guided missile engagements. M514, MJ20, WB53 and CCU-136A/A cartridge-actuated devices are included for fire suppression, release, emergency and actuation functions, and these small consumable items can affect readiness because aircraft safety systems cannot be treated as optional stores.

Training equipment includes a tactical operational flight trainer, operational machine-interface assistants, training simulators and an aviation maintenance weapons-loading trainer, giving pilots, sensor operators, maintainers and weapons crews a way to learn ASW procedures, cockpit management, acoustic search, weapons loading and emergency actions without putting every training hour on the five Seahawks. Sustainment items include spare engine containers, spare and repair parts, support and test equipment, communications equipment, ferry support, publications and technical documentation.

Support services include U.S. Government and contractor engineering, technical, logistics, obsolescence, integration, test, studies and survey support. This matters because the transition from SH-2G(I) to MH-60R involves new aircrew tasks, new acoustic systems, new precision weapons, new data links, new radios, new IFF, new maintenance test equipment, new ship-air procedures and new training pipelines. The strategic result is a small but complete maritime helicopter fleet for New Zealand, with the strongest gains in undersea search reach, surface tracking, ship-helicopter networking, graduated maritime strike and interoperability with allied forces.

Written by Jérôme Brahy

Jérôme Brahy is a defense analyst and documentalist at Army Recognition. He specializes in naval modernization, aviation, drones, armored vehicles, and artillery, with a focus on strategic developments in the United States, China, Ukraine, Russia, Türkiye, and Belgium. His analyses go beyond the facts, providing context, identifying key actors, and explaining why defense news matters on a global scale.