Article Posted on : - Jan 17, 2012

CH-47F Chinook helicopter. A Boeing photo.

RIDLEY TOWNSHIP (BNS): Boeing has received a US Army contract valued at approximately $370 million for 14 CH-47F Chinook helicopters to support Foreign Military Sales efforts.

Boeing said the aircraft will be delivered to the US Army beginning in 2014. Seven of the new Chinooks will be delivered to the Australian Defence Force and six aircraft to the United Arab Emirates under the terms of a previously announced Foreign Military Sales agreement between the US government and the two countries.

One additional aircraft is to be delivered to the US Army to fulfill its own requirements.

The H-47 programme is at the midpoint of executing a multiyear contract for 191 CH-47F Chinook aircraft that was awarded in August 2008 and originally valued at $4.3 billion. In November, Boeing submitted a proposal to the US government for a second multiyear contract for 155 Chinooks for the US Army.

This second five-year, firm fixed-price proposal would provide the Army with close to the full complement of 464 Chinooks outlined in the Department of Defense programme of record and would yield double-digit percentage savings over a single-year procurement strategy. A decision is expected early next year, Boeing said.

Since completing the first CH-47F production aircraft in August 2006, Boeing has trained and equipped eight US Army units and is in the process of equipping the ninth.