MANILA - The Philippines Department of National Defense (DND) has moved to terminate the remainder of a deal with an American joint venture (JV) for 21 refurbished UH-1 helicopters. The deal - negotiated directly with a JV combining Rice Aircraft Services and Eagle Copters Ltd following three failed bidding attempts by the DND between December 2012 and September 2013 - called for the refurbishment, delivery and acceptance by the Philippines Air Force (PAF) of all 21 units by September 23, 2014.
A PHP1.263 billion ($28 million) contract was awarded to the Rice-led JV in December 2013, with a notice to proceed with deliveries following a month later, in January 2014. But to date only eight of the required 21 units had been delivered to Clark Air Base in the Philippines, refurbished, accepted by the technical inspection acceptance committee (TIAC) and handed over to the PAF. Because the cumulative amount of liquidated damages had reached 10 percent of the contract, the DND sent a letter to the JV giving it seven days to submit a verified position paper detailing why the contract should not be terminated. With that timeline now exceeded the DND is closing the door on the remainder of the deal, meaning only eight helicopters were acquired (along with 21 sets of gun mounts).
The UH-1 Huey forms the core of the PAF helicopter arm, but much of its legacy fleet is decrepit and unusable. Thus, the DND had sought to acquire the refurbished models to augment the existing fleet, which would be assigned to multiple mission types, including medevac, tactical troop transport, and logistical support.
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