The United States has approved a potential sale of UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters to Mexico worth an estimated $1.08 billion, the State Department said on Friday, 6 November.

The principal contractor for the sale is Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin company, the department said. The UH-60M is the latest version of the Black Hawk, a twin-engine, medium-lift utility helicopter built by Sikorsky.

Approval, not a done deal

The approval is a determination that the sale may go ahead, not a concluded contract. Under the foreign military sales process, Congress is notified of the proposed deal and Mexico must still sign a formal agreement before any aircraft are delivered. The announcement as reported did not state how many helicopters the package covers.

The State Department's approval follows the standard foreign military sales process, in which the Defense Security Cooperation Agency certifies the proposed sale to Congress.

Mexico already flies Black Hawks

Mexico already flies Black Hawks. The Mexican Air Force ordered its first UH-60 helicopters in the early 1990s, and Washington approved a sale of 18 UH-60M aircraft in 2014. Further approvals followed, including three UH-60Ms in 2015.

Black Hawks have long been used by Mexican forces in counter-drug operations, and the new approval continues a decade of US military helicopter sales to Mexico through the Pentagon's foreign military sales programme.