Andrew Drwiega of HeliHub.com talked to Mick Maurer, President, Sikorsky Aircraft

Andrew Drwiega (AD): What are you expecting in terms of growth from the regions around the world?

Mick Maurer (MM): We look at the US market which is our anchor customer [the Department of Defense in particular] which helps us into other world markets.

There are six key markets around the world which present the best long term prospects: India, China, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Mexico and Brazil. We look at those six countries and try to find a way to become a local aerospace player; and that is different in each country. Take Turkey for example, where we have a joint venture [Turkish Aerospace Industries] and have made massive progress; we have a new Turkish cockpit with one of the avionics companies [Aselsan].

In India we have a partnership with Tata who build the S-92 – and have made around 100 so far. There was no offset obligation or campaign as we wanted to be there. As it happens we have just been selected for the Indian Naval programme [S-70B for the Multi Role helicopter]. We don’t view national OEM HAL [Hindustan Aeronautics] as a competitor as we are looking at business sectors we can cooperate over with them. They have so much business and their historical focus has been fixed wing rather than rotary wing, so we are looking at how we can work with them on many levels.

In Brazil we have business with the Air Force, Navy and Army but we don’t have an industrial footprint there – yet. However, we have been working with the Brazilian Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica (ITA) to launch its Collaboration for Rotorcraft Innovation, a plan to increase the strength of rotorcraft specialists in Brazil.

China is all commercial business of course. We have participated in open skies discussions but airspace issues haven’t slowed anyone down in the offshore oil business there. Sikorsky delivered between $200m-$300m of business there last year and have around 100 aircraft in that country at the moment.

The Asian market is up – but of course that is a wide number of countries. Southeast Asia is looking particularly strong. And our Royal Australian Navy customer is very happy with their decision to buy Seahawks [MH-60R].

AD: What effect is the low oil price having on your customers and operators in general in the offshore energy business?

MM: Back in 2009 the price was also around $50 per barrel but the worldwide demand for oil will continue to increase over time. We don’t know if it is 12, 24 or 36 month cycle, but it will turn around.

In terms of the range of helicopter options for customers, there is no one answer in terms of the right solution. When things were really good we perhaps didn’t ramp up our capacity as aggressively as some others. Perhaps we didn’t get as much upside as we could, but then we aren’t getting the hit others are now having. We also don’t need to have a ‘fire sale’ of aircraft – we can manage our pricing and be steady.

In terms of actual energy exploration, one quarter of the rigs have taken a hit. But production, the other three quarters, still continues to flow. Some of the operators are taking advantage of the lull to purge their older models. So that can be both good and bad news for us. Mostly they are betting on being in the business medium-to-long term and therefore need their helicopters.

AD: Where are your priorities in terms of developing the civil market sectors for Sikorsky?

MM: The UK SAR contract is very important to us and we are on time with the customer’s deliveries. We also also delivering the S-76D to the Japanese Coastguard in a very highly configured version. While we will deliver it, Japan [Mitsubishi Heavy Industries] completes the helicopter which include final additions and some of the mission system equipment.

AD: What effect is ongoing sequestration likely to have on the development of FVL [Future Vertical Lift]? Will it just put the in service date back or is it potentially more serious than that?

MM: It’s still hard to say what the effect will be long term. When we get back to some semblance of order we believe that there is no problem at the moment. The requirement will not go away and we aren’t talking about a Joint Strike Fighter in terms of development funding – we are a fraction of that.

Multi-years contracts have helped. At one point they [the DoD] talked about cutting the fifth year of the Seahawk Romeo production [multi-year orders are all five years long] but the calculations revealed it would cost more to do this and they would get fewer aircraft. We are also in the middle of negotiation the next multi-year with the Army right now, so it is still seen as the most cost-effective way of buying helicopters.

AD: What is the current status of the Canadian Maritime Helicopter programme [CH-148]?

MM: I no longer twitch when people mention that to me. The whole program has been reset on both sides and what we have now is executable and is on track. The first big contractual milestone is the delivery of six Block 1 aircraft. Four have already arrived at 12 Wing, Shearwater, but we don’t hand them over contractually until June – although a further two will arrive by the end of April. Currently they are training crews and maintainers on the helicopters delivered to date.

The Canadian Forces have one aircraft out at sea for testing now for landings in sea state six. We are meeting our commitments and will deliver 28 aircraft in Blocks over time. The Block 1 helicopters will eventually come back through the system to be completed in final version.

AD: Can you clarify the confusion over whether Sikorsky would bid for the Polish utility helicopter contract?

MM: The detail is still under a security protocol which means you can’t go into to many details. When the Request for Purchase (RfP) was published we were a little surprised at what we saw and that led us to concluded that we should not respond. But we asked follow up questions and got encouraging answers so we were able to put in a proposal. There is an aspiration in the Polish government for a down select sometime soon [perhaps within the next month].

AD: Finally, what are the top three items on your ‘to do’ list?

MM: Everything to do with the CH-53K is my answer. This is critical to us. if you look at Sikorsky 2014 to 2023 – 80 percent of what we do now for DoD has something to do with the UH-60 – in 2023 it will be 20 percent. The future is in the CH-53K and the $3.5 billion budget. But our future is now a lot more certain and predictable. We have these big programs but will they be profitable – that will depend on how we execute them. We have the 53K, the Air Force program (Combat Rescue Helicopter), the Turkish program, the Indian program, the Presidential program [VH-92 – the next Presidential helicopter] – so for us it is all about executing those programs and get us into production. Luckily we are developing new products and we have a bunch of engineers who have lots of development experience and that is really paying off. Canada was painful, but yes we even learned from that.

AD: Many thanks.

BIOGRAPHY: Mick Maurer was named President of Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation in July 2012. He previously served as president of Sikorsky’s military business. Maurer joined Sikorsky in 2000 and has served as vice president of marketing and strategic planning, vice president of commercial programs and senior vice president of operations. Maurer started his UTC career in 1989 at Otis where he held various positions in sales, marketing, engineering and operations.

Prior to joining UTC, Maurer was an officer in the U.S. Navy’s nuclear submarine program performed research at Los Alamos National Laboratory and taught physics at the U.S. Naval Academy.

He is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, completed his master’s degree in electrical engineering from Johns Hopkins University and his MBA from Stanford University. He serves on the board of directors for Junior Achievement of Western Connecticut and the governing board for the MIT Leaders for Global Operations program.