H125 order for Brazilian Armed Forces
Brazil is negotiating a deal with Airbus Helicopters for 27 H125 Esquilo helicopters, twelve for the Força Aérea Brasileira (FAB, Brazilian Air Force) and fifteen for the Comando da Força Aeronaval (Brazilian Naval Air Command). Both services will use the H125 for training purposes superseding the H-50 (HB350B) and IH-6B (Bell 206B) respecitively.
Funds for this deal are freed up from the Super Cougar/Puma programme (HX-BR). The air force will get one H-36 (EC725AP) less and the navy will give up one of five UH-15A (EC725BR-M) on order. The army will also give up one HM-4 (EC725), but instead of H125s they will get an extension on their support contract.
According to the Scramble database the FAB still has 25 H-50 Esquilo (HB350B) in their active inventory. The Navy has 17 IH-6B (Bell 206B) in their active inventory.
Photo (H50) by Jurgen van Toor (Scramble Archive)