- Ukrainian intelligence has released photos of an unpublished delivery of a US-made helicopter.
- The helicopter’s paintwork suggests that the United States bought back the Black Hawk from a private company and sent it to Kiev.
after receiving the Former British Sea King Helicopter.
In fact, the Directorate General published two photos on its Twitter account on February 21, 2023, showing the helicopter in its hangar. According to the caption, the helicopter is already flying on operational missions.
This delivery is made without notice. UH-60 Blackhawk was not included in any aid package and its supply to the Ukrainian army was not mentioned by the authorities.
It is unknown where the helicopter was supplied from. Last year, the United States said it would transfer helicopters formerly belonging to the Afghan government to Ukraine, but not UH-60s, he explicitly mentioned only Russian-made Mi-17 helicopters.
— Ukrainian Defense Intelligence (@DI_Ukraine) February 21, 2023
but, defense blog I quickly noticed that the Black Hawk had a unique paint job in addition to the Ukrainian flag and roundels.
This livery has been seen in the past on helicopters from Ace Aeronautics, a US company that specializes in retrofitting older Black Hawk helicopters sold by the US military to the civilian market. In fact, his UH-60 in civilian use is now becoming a common sight for aerial work, external sling his load operations, and firefighting.
A possible explanation is that the U.S. government bought the helicopter back from Ace Aeronautics and expedited delivery. Because the helicopter had already been “disinfected” and all sensitive equipment had been replaced with commercial systems.
From the photo, the helicopter has a basic configuration and no additional equipment. The crew provided the gunner with weapons, Alarm sensors and countermeasures also seems to be missing.