The challenge
A Black Hawk is a USML-controlled defense article, so it cannot leave the United States without State Department authorization. This one was a surplus U.S. Army airframe, refurbished and fitted with mission systems in the United States, then sold to a NATO ally through a multinational procurement agency.
Every party had to be described correctly in the application: the U.S. supplier, the procurement agency and the end user. Without an approved license, the aircraft could not be exported to Portugal.
Our approach
We took on the licensing as its own scope. We worked with the exporter to assemble the application package and filed it with DDTC through DECCS, keeping the commodity description, the parties and the end use consistent across every supporting document.
We tracked the case through DDTC review and answered questions as they came up. After approval, we stayed available to help the exporter work through the license's conditions before the aircraft shipped.
Transportation was planned separately, and in the end the Portuguese Air Force flew the aircraft home on its own KC-390.
The outcome
DDTC approved the DSP-5, and the aircraft was exported under it. The first UH-60L arrived in Portugal aboard a Portuguese Air Force KC-390, the first helicopter the Portuguese Army has ever operated. It will be based at Tancos.