First two AW169s for the Dominican Republic

The Fuerza Aérea de la Republica Dominicana (FARD, Dominican Republic Air Force) has received the first two out of four Leonardo AW169s purchased in March 2023. The helicopters arrived at San Isidro on 23 March 2024 with Boeing C-17A A7-MAM of the Qatar Emiri Air Force (QEAF) from Al Udeid (Qatar).

The helicopters were produced for the Al Zaeem College of the QEAF, but this deal fell through. On 16 March 2023, the Dominican Republic announced a Declaration of Intent for cooperation in Defense, Security and Crisis Management with the United Kingdom. The first phase of this agreement includes the delivery of four Leonardo (Agusta-Westland) AW169 helicopters to enhance the capabilities of the Dominican armed forces in the security and protection against disasters.

Obviously, the purchase includes a major leap in technology compared to the current helicopters in use by the FARD, which are mainly based on former US Bell UH-1H Hueys and former Canadian Bell OH-58 Kiowas, be it in a variety of modernized versions. The first two AW169 helicopters received FARD-serials 3078 and 3079 and are the former QA338 (msn 69106) and QA339 (msn 69108) respectively.

Source: Pucara Defensa