Over the next few months, the army has plans to mothball its aging UH-1H general purpose helicopters, keeping only a few for training missions, military sources said yesterday.
While most of the estimated 50 UH-1H helicopters left are too old to remain in service, some still have service life left in them, the sources said.
The move aims to preserve the aging helicopters until new general purpose helicopters can be purchased and UH-1H pilots will be reassigned to OH-58D reconnaissance helicopter units which are now short of pilots. It is not known how long the helicopters will be put in storage.
During the interval before the arrival of new helicopters capable of replacing UH-1Hs, the army's airborne units will remain on the ground.
The army's plan to buy around 100 new general purpose helicopters to replace the ageing UH-1Hs has been at a standstill for some time due to fierce competition between the two foreign companies bidding to supply them -- as well as cutbacks to the weapons procurement budget in recent years.
The delay is counterproductive to the army in many ways. The service's airborne units, for instance, were forced to call off troops transportation maneuvers using helicopters because of the unreliability of the UH-1Hs.
An official with an airborne brigade of the army, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the Taipei Times that the UH-1Hs are now capable of carrying only cargo, not personnel.
"Even the cargo cannot be too heavy. People have seen on television our UH-1Hs carry out numerous flights to affected regions to drop daily necessities during the 921 earthquake. Don't make the mistake of thinking those TV pictures reflect the trustworthiness of the helicopters," the official said. He declined to elaborate further, however.
"No one dares to get on a UH-1H now. It really is necessary to mothball the helicopters since they are of no practical use. Their removal from the first line of service will be of great help to the OH-58D units, which are in desperate need of pilots," he said.
"The army will keep only a small number of UH-1Hs for training purposes. Actually, there are not that many UH-1Hs left, as a considerable number of them have been given away in recent years as gifts to certain foreign countries," he added.
The UH-1Hs in service in the army have been assembled in Taiwan since the 1970s under license from Bell, the original US manufacturer.
Most of the helicopters have already exceeded their service life of 25 years, but many have not flown over 3,000 hours, their maximum flight time.
Although the majority of the UH-1Hs are over 25 years old, they could serve for several more years because they have not been used very frequently in the past.
Before the acquisition of a new type of helicopter to replace the UH-1H, the army plans to use the much larger CH-47SD Chinook twin-rotor helicopters, which are to be delivered to Taiwan next year, as an interim solution.
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