The Afghan Air Force (AAF) has exercised an option for additional MD 530F Little Bird helicopters, according to a US Department of Defense (DoD) contract modification announced on 26 September.
The service will acquire a further 12 primary trainer helicopters under a USD35.7 million contract awarded to MD Helicopters Inc (MDHI) on 19 September. Deliveries are set to be complete on 29 September 2015.
The AAF's MD 530F helicopters are being procured under a Foreign Military Sales contract that has options for a total of 54 aircraft. However, the US Army has confirmed to IHS Jane's that not all of these are necessarily bound for Afghanistan.
With this latest contract modification, the AAF has now ordered 18 MD 530F helicopters, of which six have been delivered and entered service. However, one was lost during a routine training mission on 7 September 2013 when it landed on an improvised explosive device located on top of a hill not far from Shindand Airbase.
The 'F' variant of the MD 530 has been modified to function in the 'hot and high' environment of Afghanistan, in that it has a more powerful engine (compared with the MD 500E) and longer main and tail rotor blades. If all the options are exercised, the deal will be worth USD186 million.
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