Mi-17s Out: CH-47s In

The Philippines is looking to buy CH-47 Chinook helicopters from the United States.

The Asian island nation’s sudden and abiding interest in Boeing’s twin-rotor workhorse follows the cancellation of a 12.7-billion-peso ($228-million) deal that would have seen the Philippine military acquire 16 Russian Mi-17 heavy-lift helicopters. Fear of sanctions similar to those imposed on Russia by the U.S. and its NATO allies compelled Manila to reconsider its dealings with Moscow.

Philippine ambassador Jose Manuel Romualdez stated in a virtual forum: "This cancellation of this contract is precipitated mainly by the war in Ukraine. While there are sanctions expected to come our way from the United States and western countries, obviously it is not in our interest to continue and pursue this contract.”

Romualdez suggested the United States was willing to strike a deal for the amount the Philippines planned to spend on the Russian helicopters, and posited the deal would likely include maintenance, service, and parts.

Manila is currently petitioning Russia to return a $38-million down-payment made on the helicopters, deliveries of which were to commence in November 2023. The monies are essential to a five-year, three-hundred-billion-peso modernization of a Philippine military that continues to make brave but ineffectual use of World War II-era naval vessels and helicopters used by American forces during the Vietnam War.

Current Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is attempting to downplay efforts taken by his predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, to strengthen Philippine ties to China and Russia. Duterte’s administration struck the deal for the Mi-17 heavy-lift helicopters in June 2022, just days before the end of his six-year term. Marcos’s incoming administration, in addition to military deals, seeks to increase Philippine dealings with the United States across the manufacturing, digital infrastructure, and clean energy sectors.

That the Philippines needs heavy-lift, utility helicopters is a mortal certainty. The nation’s seven-thousand-ish islands are wracked in perpetuity with the sorts of natural-disasters and humanitarian crises that require the expedient movement of relief personnel and supplies into and victims out of remote, primitive locales. Also of certainty is the fact that Boeing’s Chinook costs more than double the $17-million per-unit price-tag of Kazan’s Mi-17. Manila’s willingness to conceivably halve the number of life-saving assets its 12.7-billion pesos were allocated to acquire implies a lofty valuation of U.S. friendship.

In any case, 12.7-billion-pesos is a lot of lunch money.

FMI: www.boeing.com