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US State Department Approves Sale of 6 Attack Helicopters to Philippines

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The US State Department has approved a tentative sale of six AH-1Z attack helicopters to the Philippines in a deal valued at $450 billion, the Defenсe Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) announced in a press release on Thursday.
Sputnik
"The government of the Philippines has requested to buy six (6) AH-1Z attack helicopters; fourteen (14) T-700 GE 401C engines (12 installed, 2 spares); seven (7) Honeywell Embedded Global Positioning Systems/Inertial Navigation (EGIs) w/Precise Positioning Service (PPS) (6 installed, 1 spare); six (6) AGM-114 Hellfire II missiles; and twenty-six (26) Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS) all up rounds", the release said. "The estimated cost is $450 million".

The release added that the Philippines can choose to buy six Boeing-made AH-64E Apache attack helicopters at an estimated cost of $1.5 billion, with the option also approved by the US State Department.

The DSCA said in the release that it has notified Congress of the potential sale. If the deal is finalized, the principal contractors will be Bell Helicopter and General Electric Company, according to the release.

On 17 April, the Department of Defence awarded Textron a $386 million contract to build 15 new landing craft air cushion (LCAC) or hovercraft to carry Marine Corps troops ashore.

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