Boeing delivers 17th CH-47F Chinook helicopter to Spain and announces one more unit

The Spanish Army Airmobile Forces (FAMET) now have a complete fleet of renewed CH-47F Chinook heavy helicopters.

The parade of FAMET helicopters that could not be seen on October 12 in Madrid
Meeting of CH-47F Chinook helicopters from Spain, Canada, the USA and Netherlands

Boeing Defense announced this in a message posted this afternoon on its official Twitter account at 16:46 CET: "We delivered the 17th @EjercitoTierra CH-47F #Chinook.." The American company's message was accompanied by this video of the HT.17-20 (ET-420), the first of the new CH-47Fs delivered by Boeing to Spain on February 1, 2022.

Contract complete. ✅

We delivered the 17th @EjercitoTierra CH-47F #Chinook.

But there's more to come for the longest-serving international Chinook operator. Spain will round out its fleet in 2026 with an additional aircraft ordered last year. pic.twitter.com/0lJxgZQR35

— Boeing Defense (@BoeingDefense) October 15, 2024

Additionally, Boeing Defense added: "But there's more to come for the longest-serving international Chinook operator. Spain will round out its fleet in 2026 with an additional aircraft ordered last year." The announcement of the acquisition of this 18th CH-47F was made by the Head of the Army Logistics Support Command, Lieutenant General Fernando García y García de las Hijas, in an interview published by Defensa.com on October 12, 2022.

As I already commented here a year ago, Spain purchased a total of 19 CH-47 Chinook helicopters in two batches: the first 10 were of the CH-47C variant and arrived in Spain in 1973, while the second batch was purchased in 1982, with a total of 9 CH-47Ds. Two of the helicopters were lost in accidents. The first, CH-47C Z.17-1, was lost in an accident on 20 February 1973, with no casualties. The second, CH-47D HT.17-13, was lost in an accident on 17 January 1995, also with no casualties. The latter accident left the initially planned fleet of 18 CH-47s incomplete.

The nine surviving CH-47Cs of the original ten were upgraded to the D version in 1989. Now, instead of buying new helicopters, the 17 CH-47Fs received so far by Spain are the existing CH-47Ds with a thorough modernization, in which the components of the aircraft of the V Transport Helicopter Battalion (BHELTRA V), based in Colmenar Viejo (Madrid), have been used to the maximum.

New features on these CH-47Fs include 21 AN/AAR-57A(V)8 Common Missile Warning Systems (CMWS), 42 Global Positioning Systems (GPS) integrated into the helicopters’ Inertial Navigation System (INS), aircraft survivability kits (ASE) and navigation equipment including AN/ARC-231 multimode radios, AN/ARC-201D SINCGARS radios, AN/ARC-220 high frequency (HF) radios, AN/AAR-57A(V)8 Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) systems, and an AN/APR-39A(V)1 Radar Signal Detection Suite (RSDS).

The 18th Spanish CH-47F, expected in 2026, will be the first new CH-47F that Spain will receive. This aircraft finally completes, 31 years later, the fleet of 18 Chinooks that the FAMET previously had. These helicopters have proven extremely useful, both for transporting troops and cargo and for lifting vehicles, artillery pieces and even other helicopters, as we saw three years ago when a FAMET CH-47D rescued a crashed Tigre attack helicopter in Slovenia. Today, the Defense Staff published a video showing one of the new Spanish CH-47Fs, the HT.17-29A (ET-429), lifting an L-118 Light Gun howitzer in Iraq:

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Main photo: U.S. Army. A Spanish CH-47F, the HT.17-29A (ET-429) flying in Iraq with the FAMET Task Force Toro on May 24, 2024.