Posted on 08/29/2015 5:28:34 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
LAHORE - US Department of Defence (DoD) announced on Wednesday night that it has awarded Bell Helicopter a $581 million contract that includes the delivery of AH-1Z Viper attack helicopters to Pakistan.
Although Pakistan had requested the sale of 15 AH-1Z helicopters in April, it is not clear how many of the 15 helicopters have been signed for at this stage.
The notification by the US DoD stated that 10% ($57. 9 million) of the overall contract value covered the sale to the government of Pakistan. This suggests that this is an initial deal for the first two helicopters only, with contracts for the remaining 13 (plus spares and support) to follow.
According to the DoD, these initial helicopters will be delivered by the end of August 2018. The original US Defense Security Co-operation Agency notification of Pakistan’s request included 1,000 AGM-114 Hellfire II air-to-surface missiles for “a precision-strike, enhanced-survivability aircraft that can operate at high altitudes.
By acquiring the AH-1Z and Hellfire II capability, Pakistan will enhance its ability to conduct operations in North Waziristan Agency, the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), and other remote and mountainous areas in all-weather, day and night environments”.
(Excerpt) Read more at nation.com.pk ...
I suppose President Stompy-Foot decided to kiss and make up.
Any chances those helicopters will fall into terrorist hands or be used against India?
Naaa....only after the terrorist have gotten & used Pakistan's nukes... and then these helos will only be used for mopping up operations... and by then, who's keeping score...
/s
This will make India very happy /s USA arming terrorists all over the globe.
Didn’t we just sell 25 AH-64E Apache Longbows to India?
"India has offered a follow-on order of 39 AH-64D Apache helicopters in addition to the 22 now being negotiated, a Defence Ministry official said. The sides have been wrangling over the price of the gunships, however, with the initial deal having been estimated to be worth $1.4 billion."
Oppps, that article was over a year old so the deal probably has gone thru by now.
In the proud traditions of the Indian bureaucracy, the Apache and Chinook files are still crawling through red tape.
Thanks for the update. 90 million for an Apache helicopter seems very pricey to me.
I have a crazy idea. What if we started only arming one side of the Indo-paki conflict, the Israeli-Arab conflict, etc,,, you get the picture.
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