{"id":62211,"date":"2025-12-03T22:05:06","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T21:05:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=62211"},"modified":"2025-12-11T22:50:04","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T21:50:04","slug":"spains-purchase-of-13-new-airbus-h135-military-helicopters-and-its-shocking-announcement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2025\/12\/03\/spains-purchase-of-13-new-airbus-h135-military-helicopters-and-its-shocking-announcement\/","title":{"rendered":"Spain's purchase of 13 new Airbus H135 military helicopters and its shocking announcement"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>For some time now, military equipment acquisitions in Spain have been carried out in a way that should not be normal.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2024\/0 sv7\/02\/los-helicopteros-h135-p3h-nival-de-la-armada-espanola-vistos-muy-de-cerca\/\">The H135 P3H Nival helicopters of the Spanish Navy seen very closely<\/a><\/rel><br \/>\n<rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2024\/10\/07\/the-spanish-navy-shows-its-new-h135-p3h-nival-helicopters-in-action\/\">The Spanish Navy shows its new H135 P3H Nival helicopters in action<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n<p>I was just watching this video recently published by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@flybywire-aviation\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Fly By Wire Aviation<\/a> (a YouTube channel I recommend you subscribe to) about <strong>Spain's purchase of 13 new Airbus H135 military helicopters<\/strong>, specifically 12 for the Air Force and one for the Navy (the video is in Spanish; you can activate automatic English subtitles in the bottom bar of the player):<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"El Gobierno compra a Airbus 13 helic\u00f3pteros H135 por 237 millones de euros\" width=\"665\" height=\"374\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/dF12VCYKezc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The detail that caught my attention is that, as the video points out, <strong>this acquisition was made through a contract without advertising (something already common)<\/strong> claiming that Airbus Helicopters (the company that manufactures the H135) <em>\"<strong>is the only one technically qualified for the development of the project from a technical point of view<\/strong> and improvements of interest to the administration have been negotiated<\/em>. The quotation marks are taken from the <a href=\"https:\/\/contrataciondelestado.es\/FileSystem\/servlet\/GetDocumentByIdServlet?cifrado=QUC1GjXXSiLkydRHJBmbpw%3D%3D&DocumentIdParam=O3JVC7q%2BLKpPV4jxm60cH9cq8tNQo5VnVZ3QGx9IhR5q3V6TRGHdABsYv\/lPoc68cJ9grNknaciVdhP%2BkZCAHHtNjZLh63XP%2BGPqTTV%2BDo\/3GVhXrFFqN7yFncy7YfRK\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">announcement published on the State Procurement Platform (see PDF)<\/a> this Monday, which puts the value of this contract at <strong>237 million euros<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"foto_piedefoto\"><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54961078842_14f465a2f8_o.jpg?s=eyJpIjo1NDk2MTA3ODg0MiwiZSI6MTc2NDc5Nzk4NCwicyI6IjlmNjMyYjgwNjc3OWJiNDRhZWJlNmI2MjI3YmY5OGM2NThkZDY3OTEiLCJ2IjoxfQ\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54961078842_14f465a2f8_o.jpg?s=eyJpIjo1NDk2MTA3ODg0MiwiZSI6MTc2NDc5Nzk4NCwicyI6IjlmNjMyYjgwNjc3OWJiNDRhZWJlNmI2MjI3YmY5OGM2NThkZDY3OTEiLCJ2IjoxfQ\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"piedefoto\">A Spanish Navy H135 P3H Nival (Photo: Armada Espa\u00f1ola).<\/div>\n<p>The question that comes to mind after reading this is obvious: Is Airbus the only company capable of making a helicopter like this? First of all, I want to say that I think the H135 is an excellent helicopter, and it's an honor to know that these aircraft are manufactured in Spain. <strong>Obviously, there are industrial and political reasons for prioritizing Airbus in Spain's defense contracts<\/strong>, since a large part of the money invested in these aircraft will result in jobs in our country.<\/p>\n<div class=\"foto_piedefoto\"><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/53831225290_d3d6a00c4f_o.jpg?s=eyJpIjo1MzgzMTIyNTI5MCwiZSI6MTc2NDc5ODA4NywicyI6ImFlZTg4OGZlNTMyNmEyMDE0NmE2NzE0NzEyNDMwNmFiMjBhMTYyNTgiLCJ2IjoxfQ\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/53831225290_39dd19a491_c.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"piedefoto\">An H135 P3H Nival of the Twelfth Squadron of the Spanish Navy, the HE.26-33A (with serial number 10299 and call sign Nival 1201), on the flight deck of the Amphibious Assault Ship \"Galicia\" L-51 during its visit to Vigo on July 1, 2024 (Photo: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/elentir\/53831225290\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Elentir<\/a>).<\/div>\n<p><strong>However, that fact does not justify contracts awarded without public notice that are misleading.<\/strong> Of course, Airbus Helicopters is not the only company capable of building a military helicopter that can perform the functions of the H135. <strong>For example, the Italian company Leonardo manufactures the AW139<\/strong>, which is a bestseller. If we turn to American helicopters, <strong>Sikorsky has the excellent UH-60 Black Hawk<\/strong> (and its corresponding naval versions), and <strong>Bell has the UH-1Y Venom<\/strong>, to name just two.<\/p>\n<div class=\"foto_piedefoto\"><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/53831230925_56fd4ca534_o.jpg?s=eyJpIjo1MzgzMTIzMDkyNSwiZSI6MTc2NDc5ODE0NSwicyI6ImQ5MDRlOGIyNDgxMTc5YjViOGY2ZGE3M2JhNWNmZDM2MDIyMzZjMjYiLCJ2IjoxfQ\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/53831230925_19928cc869_c.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"piedefoto\">Two H135 P3H Nival helicopters from the Twelfth Squadron of the Spanish Navy on the flight deck of the Amphibious Assault Ship \"Galicia\" L-51 during its visit to Vigo on July 1, 2024. On the left we see the HE.26-35A and on the right the HE.26-33A (Photo: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/elentir\/53831230925\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Elentir<\/a>).<\/div>\n<p><strong>Of course, I'm sure there are technical reasons for choosing the H135 over other helicopters, but that's what tenders are for:<\/strong> so we can learn about those advantages publicly, which is what's expected in a democratic country. <strong>What should be abnormal in a democracy is opacity<\/strong>, also in the purchase of military equipment, since we're talking about light helicopters, not a stealth fighter with secret components. In fact, <strong>contracts without public notice prevent us from knowing what's being prioritized: the national interest, the aircraft's performance, or other things they don't want to make public?<\/strong> In a country with a growing problem of political corruption, shedding light on this last point should be especially important.<\/p>\n<p>---<\/p>\n<p><small>Main photo: Ej\u00e9rcito del Aire.<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For some time now, military equipment acquisitions in Spain have been carried out in a way that should not be normal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[19534,11546],"tags":[7490,11462,11875,10669],"class_list":["post-62211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-defense-portada-eng","category-military-aviation","tag-airbus-helicopters-h135","tag-spain","tag-spanish-air-force","tag-spanish-navy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62211"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62211\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}