The Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk is a medium-lift utility or assault helicopter derived from the twin-turboshaft engine, single rotor Sikorsky S-70.
The S-70 was the winner of a United States Army Utility Tactical Transport Aircraft System (UTTAS) competition in the early 1970s to replace the UH-1 Huey family. Though the two final competing designs were each developed to Army specifications, the UH-60 was selected over the Boeing-Vertol YUH-61 entry from Boeing-Vertol. It would go on to serve as the basis for variants in service with other branches of the US military.

Overview
The Black Hawk was developed to meet a US Army requirement for a UH-1 Iroquois replacement in 1972. Four prototypes were constructed, the first (YUH-60) flying in October 1974, and evaluated against a rival Boeing-Vertol design, the YUH-61. The Black Hawk was selected for production and the UH-60A entered service with the US Army in 1979. In the late 1980s the model was upgraded to the UH-60L (First production aircraft 89-26179) which featured more power and lift with the upgrade to the -701C model of the GE engines. A newer model is being engineered (UH-60M), which will extend the service life of both UH-60A's and UH-60L's well into the 2020s, features still more power and lift and state of the art electronic instrumentation, flight controls and aircraft navigation control.

Variants
Sikorsky offered the design in the defense market, leading to its purchase by over 20 other countries. It is currently in service with the militaries of:
Originally, such countries as the United Kingdom and Canada purchased the design, but it was traded in when the smaller AgustaWestland EH101 were produced.
 Morocco
 Philippines
 Republic of China (Taiwan)
 Saudi Arabia
 South Korea
 Turkey
 Thailand
 United States Operators
(The Army is now replacing the M60 machine gun with the M240H machine gun.) (1,200 nm, 2,220 km)
Service ceiling: 19,000 ft (5,790 m)
Rate of climb: 700 ft/min (3.6 m/s)
Disc loading: 7.19 lb/ft² (35.4 kg/m²)
Power/mass: 0.959 hp/lb (158 W/kg)
Guns: 2× 7.62 mm (0.30 in) M60 machine guns or M134 miniguns
Can be equipped with VOLCANO minefield dispersal system. See UH-60 Armament Subsystems for more information. Performance

Black Hawk U.S Army fact file
Army Aviation Training Center (at Ft. Rucker) UH-60A Black Hawk page
Sikorsky Aircraft's BLACK HAWK page
UH-60A, H-60, AH-60L and Sikorsky S-70 on GlobalSecurity.org
H-60 Series aircraft photos and info on HawkOnline.us
UH-60 Black Hawk page on CombatAircraft.com
S-70A-42 Black Hawk of the Austrian Army
UTTAS program, origin of the Black Hawk