MADRID -- Spain's governing Council of Ministers green-lit an estimated €819 million ($962 million) contract for the upgrade of the Spanish Army's CH-47D Chinook heavy-lift helicopter fleet to the latest 'F' standard. This follows an earlier approval for the project to move forward that was approved by the Council of Ministers on September 7.
With the contract approval phase in the rearview the program should begin before year-end, with return to service of the first upgraded Chinook slated for 2021. By 2025 work on the entire fleet should be complete, enabling the Spanish Army to retain its Chinooks well into the 2030s.
The upgrade effort appears to be a substitute for an outright purchase of new-build Chinook CH-47Fs. A formal government-to-government Foreign Military Sales (FMS) request was made by Spain to the U.S. with approval by the State Department and announcement to Congress following on April 4, 2018. The $1.3 billion estimated request called for the purchase of up to 17 new-build CH-47Fs.
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