Bosnia and Herzegovina procures four UH-1H II helicopters
"In the home of the Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo this morning, BiH Minister of Defense Marina Pendesh signed a contract to acquire four UH-1H-II Huey II helicopters to be used by the BiH Armed Forces, the BiH Ministry of Defense said.
The contract for the purchase of four helicopters is worth a total of US $ 38,539,378, of which Bosnia and Herzegovina has contributed US $ 4,360,000, or 7.5 million Convertible Marks. The remaining amount was provided by the Government of the United States of America through funds from the US Foreign Friendly Sales (FMS) and Foreign Military Funds (FMF) friendly programs.
The signing ceremony was attended by top officials of the Ministry of Defense and the Armed Forces of BiH, the US Embassy in BiH and NATO Headquarters in Sarajevo. It was emphasized that this project is another valuable expression of concrete and extensive cooperation of Bosnia and Herzegovina with the United States of America.
- The procurement of these helicopters represents the largest investment project since the establishment of the Armed Forces of BiH, both in terms of the amount of funding and the impact it will have on the operational capacities and capabilities of the AF BiH - Defense Minister Marina Pendesh said on this occasion.
- This will give us more opportunities to be a firm support to all the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina, to contribute to regional cooperation projects and ultimately to strengthen our position as a reliable partner in international relations -
- Implementation of this project will provide BiH Air Force units with an adequate number of flight hours. In doing so, they will raise their training to a higher level and create a predisposition to fulfill their tasks even better and more readily in accordance with the Law on Defense of BiH - said Chief of the Joint Staff of the AF BiH, Lieutenant General Senad Masovic.
As he pointed out, "in the process of rejuvenation of the pilot and aeronautical and technical personnel it will be easier to receive and adapt new members of the Air Force and air defense of the Armed Forces of BiH, ie to ensure the replacement of the generations that awaits us in the coming period."
The BiH Ministry of Defense stated that the procurement of new aircraft was contracted with the great support of the US Government on the principle of "Total Package Approach", which for the said amount involves the complete transfer of capabilities and ensures: delivery of four Bell Huey II helicopters; retraining pilots and technicians at Bell Helicopter Textron Inc training centers, delivering spare parts and supplies for two years and 300 flight hours per year; delivery of helicopter maintenance tools and test equipment for maintenance level I and II; delivery of ground equipment for helicopter service and delivery of technical documentation for aeronautical maintenance in I and II degree.
It is also recalled that at its 37th session held on December 30, 2015, the Council of Ministers of BiH adopted the Decision approving the multi-annual project for the security and operational efficiency of the AFBiH helicopters with the implementation period from 2016 to 2025. At its 125th session, held on December 22, 2017, the BiH Council of Ministers adopted a Decision on a multi-year project for the procurement of helicopters for the MoD and AF of BiH and provided 6,200,000 KM based on this decision. An additional 1,300,000 KM was secured by the restructuring of the appropriations in 2018 based on the decision of the Council of Ministers of BiH, which was adopted at the 163rd session held on December 27, 2018 entitled “Decision to amend the decision on the multi-annual project for procurement of helicopters for MoD and AF BiH ".
At the end of September, the Tango Six conveyed the Balkan Security Network writing that BiH will acquire UH-1H-II helicopters or UH-1H Huey helicopters from US Army surplus, which will subsequently be brought to Huey II level, which represents the equipping of old UH -1H to the dynamic elements of the Bell 212. The published text describes the characteristics of the Huey II helicopter as well as a description of the current state of the Air Force helicopter fleet and the air defense of the AF BiH."