The Ministry of National Defense (MND) said yesterday it will go ahead with its original plan to procure 60 US-built Blackhawk helicopters, but will allocate 15 of them to the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) for disaster relief work.
“We reached that decision after consulting with the Interior Ministry,” the defense ministry said in a news statement.
The decision was a reversal from President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) announcement at an Aug. 18 news conference that the military would buy just 45 Blackhawks and reassign NT$10 billion (US$304 million) of its procurement budget to buy disaster relief choppers and related equipment.
Ma’s announcement came in the wake of a crash of an aging UH-1H helicopter from the interior ministry’s National Airborne Service Corps near the Aboriginal settlement of Sandimen (三地門), Pingtung County, on Aug. 11 while on a mission to help Typhoon Morakot victims. The three crewmembers were killed in the crash.
The tragedy spurred calls for the government to modernize the country’s emergency relief capacity and facilities.
The defense ministry said it had decided to stick to the original number of Blackhawks because this would allow it to acquire the new helicopters in the shortest possible time and at the cheapest possible price.
Noting that it has finalized all the preparatory work for the deal, the ministry said any change in the quantity could lead to delivery delays and price adjustments.
The defense ministry said it would give the first 15 Blackhawks to the National Airborne Service Corps for rescue and relief operations.
“In peacetime, the 15 Blackhawks will mainly operate rescue or disaster relief missions, but in wartime, they will be drafted for combat missions,” the defense ministry said.
“This way, our combat preparedness will not be affected while our national resources can be used to the fullest.”it said.
It said it would work out the details on the 15 helicopters’ use with the interior ministry.
The UH-60 Blackhawk is a four-bladed, twin-engine, medium-lift utility helicopter manufactured by Sikorsky Aircraft.
Stressing that the Blackhawk is a multi-functional utility chopper, the defense ministry said acquisition of the new choppers would help upgrade both the country’s disaster relief operations and military logistics support.
The National Airborne Service Corps has long used single-engine UH-1H choppers provided by the military for post-disaster rescue and relief operations. The aircraft are not suitable for use at sea or in high mountains and so the corps has been pushing for the purchase of new helicopters.
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