LEBANON COUNTY, Pa. (WHTM) — The first of many new and improved Black Hawk helicopters touched down at Fort Indiantown Gap Tuesday providing the Army National Guard with an overhauled modern-day training platform for pilots and maintenance examiners.

According to a press release, the Pennsylvania National Guard’s Eastern Army National Guard Aviation
Training Site (EAATS) received the first fielding of UH-60V Black Hawks from the Utility Helicopter
Program Office.

The new helicopters include an upgraded digital glass cockpit and advanced flight planning capabilities.

“The improved UH-60V airframe provides the Army National Guard enhanced capabilities to better
support the multi-domain battlefield of today and tomorrow,” said Col. Joseph Bishop, the Army
National Guard’s Aviation and Safety Division chief. “We are excited to have our aviators start in this
new, modernized helicopter for the Army, and what better place to start than here in Pennsylvania at
EAATS.”

EAATS is expected to receive a total of six UH-60V aircraft, which will be used in a “train-the-trainer’ fashion,” according to Lt. Col. Tim Zerbe, Pennsylvania’s state Army aviation officer. “This process enables unit instructor pilots, standardization pilots and maintenance examiners to get trained and then take that knowledge back to their units in order to train others.”

For more information about EAATS, visit eaats.ng.mil.