The U.S. Air Force has awarded Boeing a roughly $85 million contract for four MH-139A Grey Wolf helicopters, marking the program’s first order under full-rate production and bringing the total number under contract to 42. The award includes some sustainment work, and Boeing expects to deliver the four aircraft in 2028 or 2029, Defense News reported.
The contract was awarded Sept. 25, according to the report. Of the 42 helicopters now under contract, 27 have already been delivered. Six of those earlier aircraft were test helicopters, while the remainder came from production lots ordered before the full-rate production award.
The order follows the Air Force’s declaration that the Grey Wolf had reached initial operational capability, or IOC, on Aug. 10. Air Force Global Strike Command announced the milestone Aug. 31, clearing the first crews and helicopters to fly real-world missions supporting the security of the nation’s intercontinental ballistic missile force.
The MH-139A is a militarized version of Leonardo’s commercial AW139 helicopter. The Air Force is introducing it to take over ICBM security duties from the aging UH-1N Huey at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana, F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming and Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota.
Global Strike Command says the Grey Wolf is nearly 50% faster than the Huey, carries twice as many troops and has improved defensive systems. Those comparisons describe the service’s stated performance advantages; they do not by themselves establish how the aircraft will perform across all operational conditions.
The Grey Wolf’s first operational mission took place Jan. 8 at Malmstrom. Two helicopters from the 40th Helicopter Squadron escorted missile-maintenance and armored-security vehicles to and from a launch facility more than 100 miles east of the base. The mission lasted six hours and was completed without refueling.
The IOC milestone came years after Boeing won the $2.4 billion Huey replacement contract in September 2018. Officials had expected the program to reach IOC in 2021, but testing delays, setbacks in Federal Aviation Administration certification and integration problems extended the schedule, the report said.
The program’s planned size has also changed substantially. The Air Force once expected to buy as many as 84 Grey Wolves, including helicopters intended to shuttle officials around Washington. The service removed that VIP mission from its fiscal 2025 budget as part of spending reductions tied to the 2023 debt-ceiling agreement and cut the planned purchase to 42 aircraft.
That reduction affected the program’s cost structure. With fewer helicopters sharing program costs, the unit cost rose past the critical threshold under the Nunn-McCurdy law, which requires the Pentagon to justify or cancel programs whose unit costs increase beyond specified limits. A Selected Acquisition Report released in late August 2024 said the Pentagon later raised the planned buy to at least 56 helicopters, bringing the price back below the critical threshold.
The latest contract does not settle the program’s longer-term procurement total. For fiscal 2027, the Air Force requested four additional Grey Wolves. The House-passed defense policy bill and the Senate Armed Services Committee’s version would allow eight, but neither measure had become law. The House appropriators’ spending bill, which provides the funding, covers four.
The Grey Wolf’s original role was broader than missile-field security. The Air Force now plans to assign the VIP mission to HH-60W combat-rescue helicopters, which will replace Hueys in that work. The service has said the Hueys lack the speed, range and lift needed to provide cost-effective support for the mission.
Boeing described the full-rate award as a validation of key readiness levels and as support for the Air Force’s fielding plans across the strategic missile fields. The four helicopters covered by the contract are not expected until 2028 or 2029, leaving the Grey Wolf’s transition from IOC to wider fielding dependent on deliveries beyond the aircraft already under contract.