An-124 airlifts first five of 32 new Black Hawks
On 17 June Antonov Airlines delivered five new S-70i Black Hawk helicopters to the Philippine Air Force aboard one of its Antonov An-124-100 freighters.
The helicopters were built by PZL Mielec at its factory in Mielec in southern Poland and flown from there directly to Clark Air Base on Luzon Island in the Philippines aboard the big cargo plane purpose-built for the transport of heavy and outsized cargo.
The five helicopters are the first batch of a total of 32 that the Philippine Air Force ordered in 2022. An earlier order of 16 Black Hawks was delivered by air by the end of 2021. The remaining 27 helicopters are scheduled to be airlifted to the Philippine Air Force from PZL Mielec’s Lockheed Martin assembly line by the end of 2026. (dt)