Ukraine wants 12 Viper attack helicopters spurned by Slovakia

WARSAW, Poland — As Slovakia’s government wobbles over the previous Cabinet’s plan to buy 12 AH-1Z Viper attack helicopters from the United States, Ukrainian officials are intensifying their lobbying in Washington to secure the aircraft for their defense against Russia.

The U.S. State Department in July approved a tentative foreign military sale of 12 Vipers, made by Bell, to Slovakia for an estimated $600 million, a hefty increase compared to the initial offer of $340 million extended to the previous Slovak government. The discount was in part due to the fact that a deal with the initially envisioned recipient of the U.S. equipment, Pakistan, had fallen through.

A senior industry official close to the talks said Bratislava’s efforts have since aimed at decoupling the discount from the Vipers and instead apply it to other prospective purchases like F-16 warplanes and air-defense systems. That has left officials in Washington miffed, the industry official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing negotiations.

Meanwhile, Vadym Ivchenko, a Ukrainian lawmaker for the Batkivshchyna party, told Defense News that Ukraine has shown interest in the 12 Vipers since 2022. At that time, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces filed a letter of request to the U.S. to obtain the aircraft through a foreign military sale.

“We need these helicopters for our soldiers who are fighting on the frontline in the Ukrainian provinces of Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and other regions but also leading an operation in the Kursk region,” Ivchenko told Defense News.

As a member of the parliamentary Committee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence, Ivchenko said he has written letter to U.S. lawmakers to convince the Biden administration to reroute the Vipers to Kyiv if Slovakia turns them down.

“Slovakia should decide what kind of weapons and equipment they require for their military, and if they don’t need these helicopters, then their delivery to Ukraine should take place as soon as possible,” he said.

Ivchenko said that officials in Kyiv are also making efforts to host the production of Bell helicopters at a designated Ukraine-based facility.

“We wish to deepen our industrial cooperation with the United States to produce such helicopters in Ukraine,” according to the lawmaker. “This foreign investment would be guaranteed by the Ukrainian government.”

In March 2023, then-Slovak Defence Minister Jaroslav Naď announced the U.S. had offered to Slovakia the copters along with AGM-114 Hellfire II air-to-ground missiles, valued at about $1 billion, for roughly a third of their regular price to compensate the country for its donation of Soviet-designed Mikoyan MiG-29 fighter jets and 2K12 Kub air defense systems to Ukraine.

However, since a new Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Robert Fico was sworn in last October, Bratislava has suggested that attack helos are no longer high on its shopping list. Instead, the Slovak ministry would rather use the offered discount to buy Patriot air defense systems or additional F-16 fighters on top of the 14 jets it ordered in 2018, local officials suggested.

Naď, who chairs the opposition Demokrati (Democrats) party, told Defense News the new government in Bratislava, which is more aligned with Russian interests, still has gripes about the transfer of outdated fighters and air defense systems to Ukraine during the early days of the war. Fico officials now claim those donations had no basis in law, making Slovakia the only country of Eastern European allies to Kyiv where legal trouble is brewing over military aid to Ukraine, Naď said.

Industry officials have noted that the latest U.S. offer for the Vipers no longer includes Hellfire missiles, attributing the change in scope to growing discontent in Washington.

Jaroslaw Adamowski is the Poland correspondent for Defense News.

波兰华沙——斯洛伐克政府对上届内阁从美国购买 12 架 AH-1Z“蝰蛇”攻击直升机的计划犹豫不决之际，乌克兰官员正在华盛顿加大游说力度，以确保获得这些飞机，用于防御俄罗斯。

美国国务院7月批准了一项向斯洛伐克出售12架贝尔公司生产的“蝰蛇”战斗机的初步军售协议，总价值约6亿美元，比最初向斯洛伐克前政府提出的3.4亿美元报价大幅上涨。价格下降的部分原因是，与最初设想的接收国巴基斯坦的交易最终告吹。

一位接近谈判的高级业内人士表示，布拉迪斯拉发方面此后一直致力于将折扣与“蝰蛇”战斗机项目脱钩，转而将其应用于其他潜在采购项目，例如F-16战斗机和防空系统。这位不愿透露姓名的业内人士表示，此举令华盛顿官员感到不满。

与此同时，乌克兰祖国党议员瓦迪姆·伊夫琴科告诉《防务新闻》，乌克兰自2022年以来就对12架蝰蛇战斗机表现出了兴趣。当时，乌克兰武装部队总参谋部向美国提交了一份请求信，希望通过对外军售获得这些飞机。

伊夫琴科告诉《防务新闻》：“我们需要这些直升机，用于在乌克兰顿涅茨克、扎波罗热等地区前线作战的士兵，以及在库尔斯克地区领导作战行动的士兵。”

作为议会国家安全、国防和情报委员会的成员，伊夫琴科表示，他已致信美国议员，希望说服拜登政府，如果斯洛伐克拒绝接收这些蝰蛇战机，就将它们改道运往基辅。

他说：“斯洛伐克应该决定其军队需要什么样的武器装备，如果他们不需要这些直升机，那么就应该尽快将这些直升机交付给乌克兰。”

伊夫琴科表示，基辅官员也在努力争取在指定的乌克兰境内工厂生产贝尔直升机。

这位议员表示：“我们希望深化与美国的工业合作，在乌克兰生产此类直升机。这项外国投资将由乌克兰政府担保。”

2023 年 3 月，时任斯洛伐克国防部长雅罗斯拉夫·纳德宣布，美国向斯洛伐克提供了价值约 10 亿美元的直升机以及 AGM-114 地狱火 II 空地导弹，价格约为其正常价格的三分之一，以补偿该国向乌克兰捐赠苏联设计的米格-29 战斗机和 2K12 库布防空系统。

然而，自从去年10月罗伯特·菲佐总理领导的新内阁宣誓就职以来，布拉迪斯拉发方面已暗示，攻击直升机不再是其优先采购目标。当地官员表示，斯洛伐克国防部更倾向于利用所提供的折扣购买“爱国者”防空系统，或在2018年订购的14架F-16战斗机基础上再添购几架。

反对党民主党主席纳德告诉《防务新闻》，布拉迪斯拉发新政府（该政府更倾向于俄罗斯的利益）仍然对战争初期向乌克兰转让过时的战斗机和防空系统耿耿于怀。纳德说，斯洛伐克国防工业公司（FICO）官员现在声称，这些捐赠没有法律依据，这使得斯洛伐克成为基辅东欧盟友中唯一一个因对乌克兰的军事援助而面临法律纠纷的国家。

业内人士指出，美国最新提出的蝰蛇战机方案不再包含地狱火导弹，并将此归因于华盛顿日益增长的不满情绪。

Jaroslaw Adamowski 是《防务新闻》驻波兰记者。