Bos and Herzegovina announces procurement of UH-II helicopters

At its session on May 11, the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina made two distinct decisions significant in the context of capacity building in the defense sector, namely one on amendments and supplements to the decision on the multi-year project for the procurement of helicopters for the Ministry of Defense and the Armed Forces of BiH OSBiH and the financing of a multi-year project of training officers in the military record specialty Aviation.

As it was said to Fena news agency on that occasion, it is about two separate but from a professional aspect, compatible projects, which will contribute to increasing the aviation capabilities of the Armed Forces of BiH.

The first decision, according to the Ministry of Defense and the Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina, continues the acquisition of American Bell UH - 1 H - II Huey II helicopters, which will be realized in the next three years.

Bosnia and Herzegovina secured 3.6 million BAM for those additional helicopters, and the rest will be provided by the Government of the United States of America.

These are general-purpose helicopters, for whom the official handover of the initial delivery of four copies took place on December 10, 2021, at the Barracks of the Armed Forces of BiH Rajovac.

The remaining amount was provided by the government with funds from the US Foreign Military Financing FMF program.

At the same time, they remind people that several members of the Air Force and Air Defense Brigade of the Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina have successfully completed adaptation training on UH-II Huey II helicopters, which took place in Fort Worth, Texas, from June 6 to 25, 2021.

After further retraining in BiH, the pilots of both helicopter squadrons of the Armed Forces of BiH were fully operational on the new Huey II helicopter.

The helicopter of military designation UH- 1 H-II Huey II is a modernized, improved, and cheaper to maintain version of the general purpose helicopter UH- 1 H Iroquois also known as Huey, which is already in the inventory of the OSBiH Air Force and Air Defense Brigade, according to the relevant ministry.

The MoBiH believe that with this acquisition, the Armed Forces of BiH can continue and even better perform the tasks of air transportation, medical evacuation, firefighting, search and rescue, as well as other tasks in fulfilling the main missions of the Armed Forces of BiH.

The United States of America is also providing another 12 million dollars for the purchase of advanced flight simulators for these helicopters of the Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the ministry of defense of Bosnia and Herzegovina said in a statement.