AgustaWestland offers AW139M to Slovakia

[Saifullah Sani]

Slovakia is being offered the AW139 by AgustaWestland as a potential replacement for its aging Mi-17 'Hip' helicopters Source: AgustaWestland

AgustaWestland is offering the AW139M to the Slovak Ministry of Defence (MoD) to fulfil an urgent requirement to replace Russian-made Mil Mi-17 'Hip' medium transport helicopters.

The AgustaWestland announcement comes on the heels of a US Department of Defense (DoD) proposal made on 12 January to sell the Slovak MoD nine Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk medium helicopters for EUR300 million (USD347 million) including spare parts and training via the Foreign Military Sales programme.

"AgustaWestland is ready to make an offer to Slovakia with the AW139M and, of course, associated training and support", AgustaWestland spokesperson Geoff Russell told IHS Jane's .

"The offer will be very competitive if compared to the EUR300 million Black Hawk offer. We are sure that, with a much lower cost, the AW139M perfectly fits the country's requirement", Russell added.

Slovak defence minister Martin Glvac said on 12 January that while the MoD is taking the US DoD offer very seriously, it will also consider bids from other helicopter manufacturers. Glvac also made it clear that an ultimate procurement decision would be made by the Slovak government and Slovak Security Council.

Airbus Helicopters did not respond to IHS Jane's as to whether it would also submit a bid to meet the Slovak MoD helicopter requirement.

COMMENT
Over the next six years the Slovak MoD is intending to replace 14 Mil Mi-17 medium transport helicopters that are rapidly nearing the end of their service life and proving expensive to operate and maintain. Furthermore the ongoing armed conflict in neighbouring Ukraine has prompted the Slovak MoD to not only modernise its armed forces with equipment in service with other NATO countries but also phase-out Russian-made legacy platforms over concerns of the availability and costs of spare parts.

AgustaWestland offers AW139M to Slovakia - IHS Jane's 360