CH-47 Chinook helicopter (photo : dvids)
Aboard the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan, the United States Ambassador to the Philippines announced on Friday Washington will make available a $100 million fund in military aid next year to its oldest security ally in the Indo-Pacific region, the largest military aid in years.
Interviewed by local journalists, Mary Kay Carlson said the US will help the Philippine military modernize its equipment by providing financing to acquire US-made heavy lift helicopters to offset a deal which it canceled from Russia last June.
“The United States is now making available S100-million in foreign military financing in part for the Philippine military to use as it wishes, but could well be use to offset the decision to cancel the Mi17 helicopter purchase,” Carlson told reporters, adding the increase in military aid was discussed in Hawaii last month by senior defense officials.
Carlson said the Philippines can actually use the $100 million to buy a replacement of the canceled Russian aircraft in June. The US has offered to sell its CH-47 Chinook heavy-lift choppers.
Former president Rodrigo Duterte had scrapped the 12.7 billion pesos deal to acquire 16 Mi-17 heavy lift helicopters because of the sanctions imposed by Washington on Russia’s unprovoked invasion in Ukraine in February.
The Philippines has already paid a down payment of 2 billion pesos for the Mi-17 choppers and it is uncertain if the country can recover the down payment paid to a Russian company.
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