Bloomfield aerospace and industrial parts manufacturer Kaman Corp. announced the U.S. Forestry Service awarded 40% of its large helicopter-use contracts to operators of Kaman’s K-MAX medium-to-heavy-lift helicopters.
The four-year contracts with helicopter operators are meant to ensure the Forestry Service has immediate access to helicopters for firefighting purposes, Kaman said.
“We are extremely proud of our K-MAX operators and pleased the USFS has decided to increase the number of K-MAX’s on exclusive use contracts,” Kaman Senior Director of Business Development Roger Wassmuth said.
The 11 contracts are collectively worth just under $105 million, a Kaman spokesman said Friday.
Kaman’s K-MAX first received Federal Aviation Administration approval in 1994. The company ended production of the helicopter in 2003, after having built 38 of them, but then re-started production in 2015, after receiving 10 new orders.
In October, Kaman announced it had received a total of 13 orders for the K-MAX since it was put back into production.