Colombia has requested the possible purchase of nine more Sikorsky UH-60L Black Hawk utility helicopters to support its counter-narcotics and armed forces modernisation efforts.
Outlined by the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency on 5 August, the proposed $162 million deal would include the sale of four aircraft each to the Colombian army and national police force, and one to its air force.
"The Colombian air force intends to expand its existing medical evacuation architecture to expedite movement of injured personnel from combat zones," the DSCA says.
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The proposed Foreign Military Sale would also include the provision of training services, spare parts and logistics support, according to its announcement.
Colombia currently uses 85 Black Hawk-series aircraft, as listed in Flightglobal's HeliCAS database. This includes 46 army UH-60Ls, 32 air force UH-60A/Ls and seven police-operated S-70As.
Its current examples were delivered between 1988 and 2009, and four more are already on backlog for the police force, HeliCAS says.
Source: Flight International
