US Navy awards Bell contract for AH-1Z helicopters

[Zarvan]

The USN awarded Bell a USD440 million contract modification to produce and deliver 25 AH-1Z Viper attack helicopters. Source: US Marine Corps

The US Navy (USN) awarded Bell a USD440 million contract modification to produce and deliver 25 AH-1Z Viper attack helicopters on 18 January, according to a Pentagon statement.

The contract modification, known as Lot 16, is part of the US Marine Corps' (USMC's) programme to acquire 189 AH-1Zs. The contract also includes the purchase of 25 store control units, which, according to Bell spokesman Michael Reilly, is the interface between the pilot and the weapon system that is used to manage the employment of the weapons loaded on the aircraft.

Work is expected to be complete by January 2022. Reilly said it takes roughly 30-31 months to manufacture an AH-1Z aircraft. USN spokesman Greg Kuntz said on 23 January that Lot 16 is the final lot buy of AH-1Z for the service.

The marinised AH-1Z features virtually identical front and rear 'glass' cockpits, fully-integrated weapons, avionics, and communications system. It also features a fully-integrated air-to-air missile capability.

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https://www.janes.com/article/85924/us-navy-awards-bell-contract-for-ah-1z-helicopters

 

[IceCold]

By the way what happened to ours?

 

[Foxtrot Delta]

By the way what happened to ours?

We never paid for ours. So there never was ours to begin with. A thing becomes urs after u have paid for it.

 

[IceCold]

We never paid for ours. So there never was ours to begin with. A thing becomes urs after u have paid for it.

Well the contract was awarded for Pakistan last i checked and whether we paid or not is a moot point since most of the time we never really paid in cash directly but rather diverted funds. But my point was what happened to those manufacture for Pakistan? Some people believed they were delivered to Pakistan as new sheds were being built for them.

 

[Foxtrot Delta]

Well the contract was awarded for Pakistan last i checked and whether we paid or not is a moot point since most of the time we never really paid in cash directly but rather diverted funds. But my point was what happened to those manufacture for Pakistan? Some people believed they were delivered to Pakistan as new sheds were being built for them.

New sheds?? Attack helicopters are usually placed in hangars.

Unless they get paid they wont give any of those to pak. There were talks of sellung them to third parties like israel or egypt. But i think mericans will use them in their marine units.

Pakistan is reducing dependency on united states.
While united states is also reducing its aid to global allies it sees as too expensive and no do gooders.

Most pakistaniz like me are happy with less dependency on american weapons and more indegenous, chinese. Russian options which are 10x more reliable suppliers even during war time.

While usa always has strings attached not only for allies like pakistan and egypt but also for nato allies like germany and turkey.

Good riddance from united states weapon dependency. Thank God china has caught up or is surpasing united states in weapon technologies.