Five Bell UH-1H Huey IIs delivered to Uganda
Bell Helicopter has completed production of five UH-1H-II Huey IIs for the Uganda Peoples’ Defence Force (UPDF) at its facility in Ozark, Alabama, where they were reworked from US Army UH-1H airframes. They departed from Ozark for the US Army facility in Huntsville, Alabama on November 10.They were then due to be airfreighted to Uganda.
Kenya and Uganda will in the coming months receive advanced attack military helicopters in a bid to modernize and to strengthen AMISOM’s onslaught against Al-Shabaab in Somalia. (Photo by intelligencebriefs.com)
The helicopters had already been fully painted in UPDF colours before leaving Ozark, but still carried US civil registrations. All five have now been confirmed as N296FA (c/n 5820, ex 66-16126), N486PA (c/n 8515, ex 66-16321), N806YB (c/n 9293, ex 66-17099), N810AS (c/n 4605, ex 64-13898) and N4869Z (c/n 9317, ex 66-17123).
US Army Contracting Command had awarded Bell a $34.5m Foreign Military Sales contract for these helicopters on September 26, 2016 (see Huey IIs Ordered for Kenya and Uganda, November 2016, p21). It was announced at that time that contract completion was expected on December 29, 2017. Original plans had been for eight Huey IIs to be delivered to Uganda, but the final contract wasfor just five.
Source: By Dave Allport / AirForces Monthly – January 2018
Beacky Maya Mugambi
(KENYA / NIGERIA XAIRFORCES Editor)
AFRICAN AIR FORCE NEWS
