Colombia is to increase its fleet of police-operated armed helicopters with 14 Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawks and associated armaments in a $221 million deal, say defence industry sources.
The USA is to supply the UH-60s with GAU-19A and GAU-17 machine guns and M265 70mm (2.75in) rocket pods. Colombia's paramilitary police operate 26 UH-60s.
The police require the machines for anti-drug and counter-insurgency missions. The UH-60L competed against the Bell Helicopter Textron MH-1W SuperCobra, a multirole version of the US Marine Corps' AH-1W.
Bell says it intends to demonstrate the MH-1W in Colombia this year now price and availability requests have been cleared by the US State Department, although it says it does not have export approval. The sources say, however, "that the Colombians are happy with the UH-60L and are to stay with the armed Black Hawk."
Colombia was expected to finalise in November the purchase of five UH-60Ls built for Venezuela, but undelivered because of financing issues.
Source: Flight International
