Tuesday, February 22, 2011

UAE to convert its BlackHawks to BattleHawks.

via DefenseNews.

ABU DHABI - The United Arab Emirates is set to turn a number of its Sikorsky Black Hawks into gunships in a deal with the U.S. helicopter maker worth nearly 1 billion Arab Emirate dirhams ($272 million).
The announcement of a plan to buy weaponization kits for 23 of its Black Hawk UH-60M helicopters was the pick of a 4 billion Arab Emirate dirham order bonanza unveiled by the UAE armed forces at the IDEX show Feb. 21 in Abu Dhabi.
 An attack copter that does double duty as a transport?  It took several years but it seems that the US has finally achieved what the Russians did many years ago.  We have our own Mi-24...Columbia has been using a version of this for quite some time too...the only remaining question is whether the US Navy or Army will acquire a few kits.  It would seem a natural for the Navy.  With the focus on littoral combat, these would seem an ideal addition to the fleet.


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4 comments :

  1. Well there was always the USN's MH-60R...

    If you don't have dedicated Apaches, it's a nice extra capability. The H-60 series can take a beating, but in the end it is still a vulnerable transport helo conversion.

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  2. Hmmm. Wonderful machine for "crowd control".
    Just what every sovereign / dictator / kleptocrat needs to keep the people in line.

    Just sayin'.

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  3. question: if they convert it adds weight to the platform, does it take down the number of troops that can be transported or is it converted from transport to attack helo?

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  4. How 'bout Australia? They've been having problems getting their Tiger into action and they desperately need attack helos for A'stan.

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