Bell Helicopter announced at the Singapore Airshow the signing of a purchase agreement with the Department of National Defense of the Philippines (DND) for 16 Bell 412EPI helicopters to be operated by the Philippines Air Force (PAF).
The 16 Bell 412EPI helicopters are being acquired as part of the Philippines Armed Forces (PAF) modernization plans and were purchased by the DND under a government-to-government contract with the support of the Canadian Commercial Corporation (CCC). Helicopters will be used for various missions such as disaster relief, search and rescue, passenger transportation and public services transportation.
The Bell H-13 Sioux, a variant of the iconic Bell 47, was the first helicopter to enter service with the Philippine Air Force in 1955. The Philippine Air Force has operated Bell UH-1H derivatives since the late 1960s, and since 1994, when they received their first two Bell 412s. More recently, Bell Helicopter delivered eight 412EPs to the Philippines in 2015
