The U.S. State Department has made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale to the Government of Egypt of CH-47F Chinook Helicopters and related equipment for an estimated cost of $2.6 billion. The Government of Egypt has requested to buy twenty-three (23) CH-47F Chinook helicopters; fifty-six (56) T-55-GA-714A engines (46 installed, 10 spares); fifty-two (52) Embedded Global Positioning System (GPS) Inertial Navigation Systems (INS) (EGI) (46 installed, 6 spares); twenty-nine (29) AN/AAR-57 Common Missile Warning Systems (CMWS) (23 installed, 6 spares); and seventy-five (75) M-240 machine guns (69 installed, 6 spares). The proposed sale will improve Egypt’s heavy lift capability. Egypt will use this enhanced capability to strengthen its homeland defense and deter regional threats. Egypt will have no difficulty absorbing this equipment and services into its armed forces.
The proposed sale of this equipment and support will not alter the basic military balance in the region.The principal contractor will be Boeing Helicopter Company, Philadelphia, PA. There are no known offset agreements proposed in connection with this potential sale.
Also included is Common Missile Warning System (CMWS) classified software; AN/APR-39 Radar Warning Receivers (RWR); AN/AVR-2B Laser Detecting Sets (LDS); High Frequency (HF) radios; Aircraft Survivability Equipment (ASE) (including 25.4mm decoy cartridges, impulse cartridges for cable cutters and aircraft cartridges); AN/ARN-147 Very High Frequency (VHF) Omni Directional Radio Range/Instrument Landing System (VOR/ILS) receivers; AN/ARN-153 Tactical Airborne Navigation System (TACAN) radios; AN/APN-209 radar altimeters, AN/AVS-6 Night Vision Devices (NVD); 7.62mm ammunition; items and services to support the mission equipment; hardware and services required to implement additional aircraft options such as: rescue hoists; external cargo slings and nets; Bambi fire buckets; Fast Rope Insertion Extraction Systems (FRIES); Cargo On/Off Loading Systems (COOLS); Extended Range Fuel Systems (ERFS); Maintenance Work Orders/Engineering Change Proposals (MWO/ECPs); technical assistance; transportation; training; and other related elements of logistics and program support.
The Boeing CH-47 Chinook is a tandem rotor helicopter developed by American rotorcraft company Vertol and manufactured by Boeing Vertol. The Chinook is a heavy-lift helicopter that is among the heaviest lifting Western helicopters. Its name, Chinook, is from the Native American Chinook people of Oregon and Washington state. Since the type’s inception, the Chinook has carried out various secondary missions, including medical evacuation, disaster relief, search and rescue, aircraft recovery, fire fighting, and heavy construction assistance. The military version of the helicopter has been exported to nations across the world; the U.S. Army and the Royal Air Force have been its two largest users. The civilian version of the Chinook is the Boeing Vertol 234. It remains one of the few aircraft to be developed during the early 1960s – along with the fixed-wing Lockheed C-130 Hercules cargo aircraft – that has remained in both production and frontline service for over 50 years.
In 2001, the first Boeing CH-47F, an upgraded CH-47D, made its maiden flight; the first production model rolled out on 15 June 2006 at Boeing’s facility in Ridley Park, Pennsylvania, and first flew on 23 October 2006. Upgrades include 4,868-shaft-horsepower (3,630 kW) Honeywell engines and the airframe featuring greater single-piece construction to lower maintenance requirements. The milled construction reduces vibration, as well as inspection and repair needs, and eliminates flexing points to increase service life. The CH-47F can fly at speeds of over 175 mph (282 km/h) with a payload of more than 21,000 lb (9,500 kg). New avionics include a Rockwell Collins Common Avionics Architecture System (CAAS) cockpit, and BAE Systems’ Digital Advanced Flight Control System (DAFCS). AgustaWestland assembles the CH-47F under license, known as the Chinook ICH-47F, for several customers. Boeing delivered 48 CH-47Fs to the U.S. Army through August 2008; at that time Boeing announced a $4.8 billion contract with the Army for 191 Chinooks.
