The Department of National Defense expresses its sincerest appreciation for President Duterte’s intention to purchase more helicopters for the Philippine Air Force (PAF).
The ultimate aim of the ongoing PAF CUH Acquistion Program is to procure assets that will replace the current fleet of UH-1s of our Air Force. This program has enabled us to recently add the Sikorsky S70i Blackhawk to the PAF’s inventory.
Any program involving the acquisition of brand new hardware takes time as the new units come fresh out of the manufacturing plants, are assembled, inspected and delivered in a process that takes several months to complete.
Following the crash in Bukidnon, the entire UH-1 fleet has been grounded. In the interim, we have rotary aircraft such as the Bell 412s and Blackhawks that will take up some of the slack left by the withdrawal of the UH-1s from the field.
We are expecting the delivery of 10 more Blackhawks early this year, and these units will be deployed as soon as they pass mandatory technical inspection and acceptance procedures.
Arsenio R. Andolong – Spokesperson, Department of National Defense
