Boeing has secured a contract from the US Army covering Lot 3 orders of the company’s latest CH-47F Chinook heavy-lift helicopter.
The US manufacturer disclosed the $135 million deal covering three of the Block II Chinooks on 4 December.
Among the improvements offered on the Block II version are an upgraded drivetrain, reinforced airframe and enhanced fuel system. These deliver an improved mission radius and an additional 1,814kg (4,000lb) of maximum gross weight for the CH-47F.
“The CH-47F Block II’s increased payload capacity and expanded range enables the US Army to meet evolving heavy-lift mission requirements around the world,” says Heather McBryan, vice-president of Boeing’s defence cargo programmes.
The airframer delivered the first Block II Chinook to the army in July, followed by a second example in September. Boeing says it is under contract to deliver nine of the latest CH-47Fs.
However, the army in February committed to large-scale acquisition of the type, a move that stands to modernise the service’s heavy-lift fleet and would throw a major lifeline to Boeing’s vertical lift business. A full-rate production deal could deliver hundreds of new orders to the company, as the army seeks to update some or all of the 465 Chinooks in its inventory.
The recent Lot 3 order had been in the works prior to that full-rate procurement decision, Boeing tells FlightGlobal, accounting for the contract’s small size.
Boeing is separately delivering the MH-47G specialty variant of the CH-47F Block II to US Special Operations Command (SOCOM), which operates its own procurement system apart from the main services.
SOCOM has orders in place covering at least 42 MH-47Gs, which are produced at the same Philadelphia facility where Block I- and Block II-standard Chinooks are assembled.
Germany has also opted to field the latest Block II model, with Berlin approving an $8.5 billion deal for 60 aircraft in 2023.
The UK in March committed to a 14-aircraft order of the extended-range version of the CH-47F, a similar configuration to the MH-47G.
