TSAMTO, January 10. The Ministry of Budget and Management of the Philippines has issued a special order on the allocation of funds (SARO) for the purchase of 32 additional Polish-made S-70i Black Hawk multipurpose helicopters for the country's Air Force as part of the second stage of the Philippine Armed Forces Modernization Program.
Defense Minister Delfin Lorenzana told the Philippine news agency PNA that the Armed Forces of the Philippines need additional helicopters, first of all, to carry out humanitarian operations and operations to assist victims of natural disasters.
The Ministry has allocated 1.6 billion Philippine pesos to cover the initial financing requirements for the acquisition of additional multi-purpose helicopters for the Philippine Air Force.
As reported by TSAMTO, in early December 2021, the Philippine government approved the allocation of a total of 62 billion filip. pesos for the purchase of 32 additional S-70i Black Hawk helicopters and six Offshore Patrol Ships (OPV). As planned, 32 billion rubles will be allocated for the purchase of helicopters. pesos ($637 million), for six OPV ships – 30 billion filip. pesos.
Earlier, in April 2019, the Ministry of Defense of the Philippines signed a contract for the supply of 16 multi-purpose S-70i "Black Hawk" helicopters developed by Sikorsky under an intergovernmental agreement with Poland. The sale cost was about 11.5 billion filip. pesos ($241.5 billion). The helicopters were assembled at the Polish company PZL Mielec.
The first six S-70is were delivered to the Philippines in November 2020. Five more helicopters were officially put into service on October 13, 2021, and the last five vehicles – on December 3, 2021. One of the six S-70is of the first batch crashed on June 24, 2021 during a night exercise.
