The Brazilian Air Force (FAB) and the Brazilian Navy signed, after an extensive renegotiation process, a contract for the acquisition of 27 H125 Esquilo helicopters from Helibras, a subsidiary in Brazil of Airbus Helicopters, which will ensure the training of pilots of these armed forces for the next decades.
This agreement makes possible the production in Brazil and the delivery of these training helicopters within the new TH-X program: 12 helicopters will be delivered to the Brazilian Air Force and 15 to the Navy.
Present at the signing of this new contract were:
- FAB Readiness Commander, Air Brigadier Lieutenant Sérgio Roberto de Almeida;
- Aerospace Operations Commander, Air Brigadier Lieutenant Heraldo Luiz Rodrigues;
- President of the Combat Aircraft Program Coordinating Commission, Air Brigadier Antonio Luiz Godoy Soares Mioni Rodrigues;
- Director of Aeronautics of the Navy, Rear Admiral Emerson Gaio Roberto;
- Head of Airbus Helicopters for Latin America, Alberto Robles.
CONTRACT RENEGOTIATION
The acquisition of these aircraft is the result of a renegotiation of the HX-BR program between the Brazilian Ministry of Defense and Airbus, whereby each of the country’s Armed Forces relinquished one of the 16 H225M helicopters it was initially entitled to.
This new agreement was announced last May by the Air Force commander, Air Lieutenant Carlos de Almeida Baptista Junior, during a meeting with the press in Brasilia, in which Infodefensa.com participated.
The main benefits of this renegotiation are that the Helibras production line in Itajubá (Minas Gerais) receives new orders and maintains its production capacity, delivering an absolute leader in the Brazilian military and aeromedical market, the H-125 Esquilo.
Another important gain is the standardization of the forces’ fleet with an updated model of a classic, worldwide success in its category: training, light attack, reconnaissance, and liaison tasks.
It will maximize the economy of resources by managing a renewed fleet, technologically updated and widely recognized in Brazil.
The HX-BR program had already suffered significant attrition in 2015, when it was announced that it would be frozen for two years, from 2017 to 2019, to which was added a further year of delays due to the issue of the grounding of the global H225 fleet in 2016.
The new H125 helicopters will feature a G500H TXi digital cockpit and VEMD (Vehicle & Engine Multifunction Display) and be compatible with night vision goggles (NVG).
They will also include different types of mission equipment, such as a winch and a hook, to make the training of future pilots as representative as possible of their missions.
With information from InfoDefensa