Ukraine shows its UH-60A Black Hawk helicopter in action with a Spanish name

@DefAviation ES 4·16·2023 · 19:31 0

Two months ago, the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine (GUR) showed off their first UH-60 Black Hawk.

Ukrainian Armed Forces show their first UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter
The US Army already has a replacement for the UH-60 Black Hawk: the Bell V-280 Valor

On February 21, some photos of this helicopter were released, and through them it was possible to determine its origin: the American civil company Ace Aeronautics. As you could already read here, the helicopter is a UH-60A built in 1980 and belonged to the US Army Aviation , having the construction number 70-197 and the number serial number 80-23439. It passed into the hands of Ace Aeronautics in 2017. This company is dedicated to upgrading aircraft for private and government clients. Before it was sold to Ukraine, the helicopter had the US civilian registration number N60FW.

Today, the GUR has published the first video of this UH-60A in action and more photos of this aircraft. "The other day, on one of the front lines, regular training of special units of the GUR of the Ministry of Defense on interaction with the Black Hawk multipurpose helicopter was carried out", points to the video description. "Special forces practiced landing combat groups on the battlefield, evacuation, landing from landing ropes, as well as night flights. As noted by both fighter and helicopter pilots, this combat vehicle is significantly ahead of the Soviet Mi-8 and Mi-24 counterparts in almost all characteristics." Here's the video:

In the video we see that the helicopter still has the decoration it had when it belonged to Ace Aeronautics: a glossy black paint (somewhat unsuitable for a military aircraft) with blue and white lines.

The starboard door of the cabin puts his call sign, "Maestro" (curiously written in Spanish and with Latin characters) and a logo that says VL-60 Ace Deck , which is the name given by Ace Aeronautics to its modernization of this UH-60A, which has a flight management system with touch screens (FMS).

Here we can see a video from Ace Aeronautics that shows us how they have renewed the instruments of this Black Hawk, putting them on a par with the most recent helicopter models:

The GUR has published more information on its website about this helicopter and the assessment made by its crew: "The helicopter impresses with its reliability, ease of operation and combat survivability", the flight engineer points out.

The GUR points out that "the "Black Hawk" is many times more maneuverable than the Mi-8, with much better control and wins in terms of horizontal flight speed. The helicopter is capable to fly continuously for about three hours and can easily cover a distance of more than 600 kilometers." As for weaponry, he adds: "This type of helicopter is designed to fire guided missiles and unguided "Hellfire" type, and is also designed to support infantry and transport various loads.It takes 3-4 seconds for a helicopter to unload a group of 12 fighters and evacuate another from the battlefield ".

However, as we saw two months ago, the Ukrainian UH-60A does not appear to carry the mounts for AGM-114 Hellfire missiles and an M134 Minigun machine gun carried by this helicopter during a presentation at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center Dallas in March 2022. It also does not include the L3 WESCAM viewer that it had on its front.

In the photos published today by the GUR we can also see in more detail the Gentex HGU-56/P ballistic helmet equipped with a maxillofacial mask worn by one of the crew. It is a common protective equipment among the crew of the UH-60 of the US Army.

The GRU website includes these words from the pilot of that UH-60A: "Over the past year, the level of our pilots has grown enormously. Today, Ukraine can easily host around a hundred Black Hawk multipurpose helicopters, about 50 Apache attack helicopters and 40-60 Chinook cargo helicopters. We could accept that number with minimal time to retrain our pilots." It will all depend on the US and other countries are encouraged to donate these helicopters.

In the video we also see this insignia, first on a patch on the arm of a crew member and finally on the nose of the aircraft. The insignia shows an owl (it is the bird that appears in the GUR emblem) holding in its claws two severed heads of a double-headed eagle, with their respective crowns ( the double-headed eagle is the heraldic emblem of Russia). The text reads "АВІАЦІЯ" (Aviation), "ВОЄННОЇ РОЗВІДКИ" (Military Intelligence) and УКРАЇНИ (Ukraine). Below is the number 0420, which surely indicates the unit.