FARNBOROUGH AIR SHOW Romania continues its push to significantly improve its military by buying advanced U.S.-made equipment with plans to buy 21 Bell UH-1Y Venom and 24 AH-1Z Viper helicopters, The central European country has issued a letter of request for the helos.
Bell’s international business development manager Joel Best told me the early industrial issues have been worked through, and the two sides have wrapped up the “first phase of the transition study” for the transfer of technology. He didn’t have a timeline for the program.
The Viper has been in use by the U.S. Marine Corps since 2009 and is mainly used as a utility helicopter, though rocket pods have been installed, along with .50 caliber and 7.62 caliber guns.
The Viper is more of a pure attack helicopter, and features identical front and rear glass cockpits, fully integrated weapons, avionics and communications systems; the Zulu version comes equipped with a fully-integrated air-to-air missile capability. The aircraft has only been in service with the Marines since 2010, and has drawn some serious international interest.
In April, the State Department signed off on the sale of 12 Vipers to Bahrain. In addition, Thailand, Poland, Australia, Morocco, Turkey, and Pakistan have expressed interest.
For Romania, a NATO ally which has been spending big on U.S. military equipment in recent years, the helicopters — if the deal goes through — would join F-16 fighters, the Patriot air defense system, and the HIMARS mobile rocket system to its growing stable of American gear. The country is also host to an American ballistic missile defense system, and has agreed to a NATO base on its soil. It currently spends 1.8 percent of its GDP on defense, but has pledged to get to the 2 percent goal by next year.
In October, the State Department approved the sale of 12 Venom helos to the Czech Republic, though the deal has been held in limbo in Prague. That deal, which the Romanian agreement will likely mirror, included Brite Star II infrared and electro-optical sensor turrets, AN/AAR-47 missile warning and laser detection systems, AN/APR-38 radar warning receivers, an electronic warfare suite, helmet mounted displays, 7.62mm mini-guns, M240 7.62mm machine guns, and .50 caliber chain guns.
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“We need to increase spending in simple systems that we need a huge volume of that can, basically, counter very low-tech drones that could pose a threat,” Norway’s top officer told Breaking Defense, “so we don’t end up using the most sophisticated missile systems against something that is very cheap to buy.”
