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Brazilian Air Force (FAB) plans to purchase 12 new Black Hawk helicopters. New FAB helicopters will be acquired from the United States and will replace old units.
The Brazilian Air Force (FAB) is in the midst of a process to purchase 12 helicopters UH-60M Black Hawk from the surplus fleet of the United States Armed Forces. The information was recently released by the Army Commander, General Tomás Miguel Miné Ribeiro Paiva, in a session at the Foreign Relations and National Defense Commission (CREDN) of the Chamber of Deputies.
Discover the new FAB helicopters and which ones will be replaced
According to the General Officer, this purchase aims to replace the 12 oldest aircraft in the fleet of 94 helicopters. Brazilian Army Aviation Command (CAvEc). Among the FAB's new helicopters are eight HM-3 Cougar and four HM-2 Black Hawk, acquired more than two decades ago and which are reaching the end of their useful life.
The UH-60Ms negotiated by the Brazilian Air Force are being chosen from the US Army's surplus fleet, and must undergo review and updating before being sent to CAvEx. The purchase will be made through the United States Foreign Sales Program (FMS), and is part of the Army's Strategic Aviation Program (Prg EE Av Ex).
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With more than 20 years in service, the Aerospatiale AS532UE Cougar (designation HM-3) and the Sikorsky S-70 Black Hawk (HM-2) are reaching the end of their useful life.
The four CAvEx HM-2 Black Hawks, registration numbers EB 2001 to 2004, arrived in Brazil in 1997. Before being incorporated into the fleet of the 4th Army Aviation Battalion, based in Manaus (AM), they completed a period of support for the Ecuador-Peru Military Observer mission.
Find out how the new FAB helicopters will be acquired
The US Army placed an order, in June 2022, for 255 UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters from Sikorsky, within the Multi-Year X program, lasting 5 years.
In total, the program foresees the manufacture of 120 units for the US Army and the surpluses, called Excess Defense Articles, would be made available for acquisition by friendly countries via Foreign Military Sales (FMS). The helicopters that are in the process of being purchased by the Brazilian Army will be from “Excess Defense Articles”, that is, they will be new from the factory and not used aircraft from US Army surpluses.
Since its re-creation, the Brazilian Air Force has always acquired its helicopters new from the factory. In the period between April 19 and 25, a COLOG delegation, led by Army General Flávio Marcus Lancia Barbosa, visited the US Army Material Command (AMC), Sikorsky and the Brazilian Army Commission in Washington (CEBW). The delegation met with the FMS and the AMC, to discuss the G2G purchasing process, since the FMS carries out the process in coordination with the US Army.
Everything about the new FAB helicopters
The Brazilian Air Force's new helicopter is a medium-sized twin-engine helicopter, equipped with a four-bladed main rotor and a four-bladed tail rotor. The basic crew of the UH-60 Black Hawk is two pilots. The rotor blades consist of a titanium core and are fire resistant up to 23mm and are equipped with pressurized sensors capable of detecting loss of rotor pressurization.
The helicopter is equipped with two turboshaft engines General Electric T700-GE-700 with a nominal power of 1622 horsepower each, and T700-GE-701 CC/D engines with a power of 1940 horsepower can also be installed. O fuel internal is stored in two crash-resistant tanks with a capacity of 1363 L.
