Philippines approves purchase of more Black Hawk helos

MELBOURNE, Australia — The Philippine government has cleared the way for its Air Force to acquire more Polish-built Black Hawk helicopters amid efforts to replace the aging fleet of Vietnam War-era Huey helicopters .

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte approved the acquisition of the helicopters in early February, according to an announcement by Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles on Thursday, with the government saying the purchase would “slowly address the growing heli-lift deficiency.”

Nograles also said the approval was for 15 helicopters, although he added that the figure was indicative and dependent on available funding.

However, the news portal Inquirer.net quoted Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana as saying on Monday that the approval was for 32 more Black Hawks, potentially bringing the Air Force’s fleet of helicopters to 48 Black Hawks.

The Southeast Asian country already has 16 S-70i Black Hawks on order, with the first five delivered in November 2020 and the last helicopter to be delivered this year. These were ordered under a $241 million contract between the two governments signed in 2019.

The helicopters are manufactured by Poland’s PZL Mielec, a subsidiary of American firm Lockheed Martin, which also owns Sikorsky, the original manufacturer of the Black Hawk.

Acquiring more Black Hawks will allow the Philippines to retire its fleet of Bell UH-1 Huey helicopters, a design that dates back to the 1960s and has suffered from a spate of crashes and accidents over the past year, resulting in the deaths of 12 crew members and soldiers.

The most recent crash in January saw seven killed when a Huey crashed during a resupply mission, leading to the grounding of the entire fleet.

The transport helicopters perform vital day-to-day missions in the Philippines, which is an archipelago made up of more than 7,400 islands, most of which have poor transport infrastructure and are prone to natural disasters such as earthquakes and typhoons.

The country also has to contend with a number of insurgencies , mainly against communist and separatist forces, in various parts of the country.

Mike Yeo is the Asia correspondent for Defense News.

澳大利亚墨尔本——菲律宾政府已为菲律宾空军采购更多波兰制造的黑鹰直升机扫清了障碍，以期替换越战时期老旧的休伊直升机机队。

菲律宾总统罗德里戈·杜特尔特于2月初批准了这批直升机的采购，内阁秘书卡洛·诺格拉莱斯周四宣布了这一消息。政府表示，此次采购将“逐步解决日益严重的直升机运输能力不足问题”。

诺格拉莱斯还表示，此次批准购买15架直升机，但他补充说，这个数字只是一个参考值，具体数量取决于可用资金。

然而，新闻门户网站 Inquirer.net 周一援引菲律宾国防部长德尔芬·洛伦扎纳的话说，此次批准的是再添置 32 架黑鹰直升机，这可能会使空军的黑鹰直升机机队达到 48 架。

这个东南亚国家已经订购了16架S-70i“黑鹰”直升机，首批5架已于2020年11月交付，最后一架将于今年交付。这些直升机是根据两国政府于2019年签署的价值2.41亿美元的合同订购的。

这些直升机由波兰 PZL Mielec 公司制造，该公司是美国洛克希德·马丁公司的子公司，而洛克希德·马丁公司还拥有西科斯基公司，后者是黑鹰直升机的原始制造商。

菲律宾若能获得更多黑鹰直升机，便可淘汰其贝尔UH-1休伊直升机机队。该机型设计于20世纪60年代，在过去一年中发生多起坠机和事故，导致12名机组人员和士兵丧生。

1 月份发生的最近一次坠机事故造成 7 人死亡，当时一架休伊直升机在执行补给任务时坠毁，导致整个机队停飞。

运输直升机在菲律宾执行重要的日常任务。菲律宾是一个由 7400 多个岛屿组成的群岛国家，其中大部分岛屿的交通基础设施落后，容易遭受地震和台风等自然灾害。

该国还必须应对全国各地发生的多起叛乱，这些叛乱主要针对共产主义和分裂主义势力。

Mike Yeo 是《防务新闻》的亚洲通讯员。