SHAH ALAM: The Joneses… More Blackhawks for the Philippines. The Philippines government in Manila signed a contract for 32 Sikorsky S70i Blackhawk helicopters for $624 million (RM2.6 billion) today (February 22, 2022). The deal for helicopters will also include an integrated logistics support and training package for pilots and maintenance crew, GMA newspaper reported.
It further reported that
“The Philippine Air Force (PAF) is very happy with the Black Hawk helicopters,” Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said during the signing ceremony held at the DND building in Camp Aguinaldo.
“Hopefully, the delivery of these new utility helicopters will start soon. I think we will not be here anymore to receive these helicopters, but nonetheless, we will be happy to see the improvement of the capability of the Philippine Air Force,” he added.
Lorenzana signed on behalf of the DND, while Mr. Janusz Zakrecki, PZL Mielec President represented the Polish company during the ceremony.The PAF also previously purchased 16 Black Hawk helicopters from PZL Mielec of Poland, with the final batch delivered and received in November 2021.
The first batch of six units was delivered in November 2020, followed by the second batch of five units in June 2021.
“Unfortunately we lost one in July due to accident. That is acceptable risk of flying helicopters at night during bad weather,” the Lorenzana said.
When the new batch of Blackhawks are delivered by 2026, PAF will have a fleet of 47 Blackhawks, allowing it to retire the remaining Vietnam era Bell UH1-Huey helicopters from service. PAF also operates up to eight Bell 412EP helicopters purchased in 2014 which would be supplemented by 16 more examples in 2018 but canceled after Canadian politician express opposition to the purchase. The Philippines then purchased the 16 Blackhawks in 2019.
— Malaysian Defence
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View Comments (24)
Wow they have plenty of money. Slowly Philippine improved their Armed Forces...
It's not that they have a plenty of money [yes the economy is improving] but there is political will and an acute need to replace the PAF's aged rotary fleet. The PAF has always had a relatively large fleet, due to geography, many hard to access areas and operational requirements.
Look at things in perspective, despite all the buys in recent years the bulk of the AFP is still in urgent need of modernisation.
Some of the UH-1H's are ex-RSAF aircraft transferred in the 2000's.
Beyond getting word of various acquisitions, it would be interesting to know what the AFP's objective orbat is and the order of priority for these developments.
It is reasonable to assume a country as large and geographically challenging as the Philippines would have requirements for a large utility helicopter fleet and a number of heavy lift assets.
PAF is going the right direction of standardising their utility chopper to only 1 type. There is a thing or two we could learn from them in that aspect.
Mabuhay....
Their armed man get a decent helo.
Their modernization plan, the horizon, is working.
'on the same day
something has arrived in Malaysia'
@gonggok
Saw the news too. The birds are finally here. Interesting that a YouTube channel is still insisting the birds are going east to Sabah...
AM - objective orbat is and the order of priority for these developments
Priority is to gradually modernise the AFP which has been under resourced for decades, by acquiring some level of deterrence against external threats [Brahmos comes to mind], maintaining or improving the ability to deal with ever present internal threats [not confined to a specific area]-and a replacing stuff which are way overdue for retirement. Whist they would like to focus on the PN and PAF, they also have to ensure the PA gets the needed attention. Various more things they would like to be doing but can't at present.
AM - 'It is reasonable to assume a country as large''
Size wise it's slightly smaller than us [East Malaysia included of course]. The country is much more spread out. The PAF has always had a large rotary fleet, goo g back to the days of the civil war in the 1990's. Even today,At any one time troops could be engaged simultaneously in northern Luzon, the central BiSayas and in Tawi Tawi area, requiring rotary support.
We too faced the same question on how to replace our 30-40 odd Vietnam era Nuris, and while PAF forges ahead with clear direction, we still hem & haw the cost of buying pricey but well proven & reliable choppers such as Blackhawk. Sigh...
There was no clear direction for the Blackhawks; it was bought after the human rights issue by Canada. PAF wanted to buy the Bell 412EPI actually as they already operated the older 412EP. The government wanted to buy Mi-17s after they cancelled the 412EPI order. However, as the Blackhawks made in Poland was available, they managed to persuade President Duterte to buy those instead. Money, by the way, was already available as their Congress had already allocated for it in 2014.
They had clear directions for the mass replacement of their antiquated Hueys, and yes it was originally intended to get 412EPIs until Trudeau muddled things with politics but just because that deal was cancelled, they did not fall back to cheaper choppers. There is a clear price gap between 412s and Blackhawks but that didn't stop Pinoy from allocating the additional funding needed to procure sufficient Blackhawk numbers.
Here we can't even decide on a single brand or even single type of chopper and when we have made a decision to buy, money is not there. Hence the leasing option. The path to permanently replace Nuri fleet is simple, we just need to spend USD $600mil as Pinoy did.
It was not Trudeau per se, it was the MPs. The people around Duterte had initially persuaded the President to buy something cheaper, the Mi-17s, which they say with the money allocated would be around 60 or 70 helicopters. But the Department of Defense and it secretary and the Philippines military all came around to persuade the government not to buy the Mi-17s, the deal was almost secured actually. But scuttled politely by the Philippines military after they insisted that all of the documentation, spares and training be done in English which the Russian cannot do. It was only after this foray into national interest and Trump entreaties with Duterte that he (Duterte) agreed to a compromise to buy the Blackhawks but from Poland and a Polish company. The funding was for around 50 helicopters but in two batches (they budgeted it around the Bell 412EPI). Unlike MY, the Philippines allocated funding as part of its law, so it will be there only need to be used for its purpose. Here, its according to the pleasure of the government.
When the new batch of Blackhawks are delivered by 2026, PAF will have a fleet of 47 Blackhawks
Meanwhile new utility helicopters for the RMAF will only be funded in 2026. Expect a few more years for them to arrive. Even then the numbers will be half of what RMAF requested.