PH to replace Bell ‘Hueys’ with Black Hawks

MANILA, Philippines — President Duterte has approved the country’s acquisition of 15 Sikorky Black Hawk helicopters to replace the Air Force’s aging fleet of Bell UH-1H “Huey” helicopters.

Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said the Air Force needed 55 helicopters but it cannot afford to purchase all of these as of now so it would settle for 15.

“The Department of National Defense, in fact, says that we actually require a total of 76 helicopters, and while the President initially agreed to acquiring 55 new helicopters, that number has been managed and in fact reduced to 15 owing to the challenges that we currently face,” he said.