PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte has approved the proposal to acquire 15 more new Black Hawk helicopters for the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to replace the Huey helicopters of the Philippine Air Force (PAF) that will be decommissioned, Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said on Thursday, February 4, 2021.
Nograles said Duterte initially wanted 55 more helicopters for the military before his term ends, but the number was reduced to 15 due to budget constraints.
These will be on top of the 16 Polish-made Sikorsky S-70i Black Hawk helicopters ordered by the AFP in 2019.
He said Duterte wants to put a stop to helicopter crashes that have resulted in the tragic deaths of military personnel.
On January 16, five military officers and two other people died when a UH-H1 helicopter crashlanded in Bukidnon while conducting a re-supply mission.
In September 2020, four people including two PAF officials were killed after a Sikorsky S-76A crashlanded in a rubber plantation in Barangay Upper Manggas in Basilan.
In July 2020, four PAF personnel also died after a Huey helicopter crashed in Cauayan City in Isabela.
Six of the 16 helicopters ordered by the AFP were commissioned last year while the other 10 are expected to arrive within the first quarter of 2021.
The Black Hawk helicopters will be used for the transport of cargo and personnel, medical and casualty evacuation, aerial reconnaissance, disaster relief operations, troop insertion and extrication, combat resupply, combat search and rescue and limited close air support. (SunStar Philippines)