Rolls-Royce may receive some good news this month, all depends on where the US government decides to place an order for its next generation of helicopters. According to Citibank, if ‘Bell V-280' succeeds, the order could be worth up to 5p per share for the top of the range automaker. 

Rolls-Royce is competing against Lockheed Martin, the new craft that wins will replace the UH-60 Blackhawk in the US Army and the US Marine Corps. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the US military has 4,300 helicopters of which 2,300 are Blackhawks. This makes it the largest fleet of helicopters in the US military.  

Citibank claims that $43 million is the maximum price tag per helicopter and it calculates the engines to be approximately 20-30% of the value or $8-10 million as there are 2 engines. Furthermore, a like-for-like replacement program is not said to be guaranteed, however, 1,000 aircrafts would accumulate $40 billion and a $8-10 billion production scheme for RR (proactiveinvestors.co.uk).   

Nevertheless, Rolls is still the most indebted company in European aerospace and defense and JP Morgan still isn’t convinced about Roll’s prospects even with the help from the weak pound (proactiveinvestors.co.uk).